Car-sharing ‘plays into our hands’ says Renault

Most major automakers have pursued shared mobility with the same vigour as the electric, autonomous and connected megatrends. Efforts have taken time to pay off and, in some cases, businesses have been wound down entirely. But Renault is doubling down on shared mobility and has flagged car-sharing as a new pillar to the business moving forward.

In January 2021 it revealed Mobilize, a new division that will steer developments on the shared mobility front. Its mission statement is to “meet the needs of modern mobility users” and it will soon launch three new dedicated vehicle platforms: one each for car-sharing, small goods delivery and last-mile delivery, dubbed the Duo, Bento and Hippo respectively. Crucially, Mobilize will be an outlet for Renault to continue selling cars where private vehicle ownership is dwindling.

The failures of other automaker-led mobility services like Maven by General Motors and Chariot by Ford are now well documented, and the closure of dedicated car-sharing operations in seemingly ideal locations would seem a further red flag. But according to Vincent Carre, Head of Car-Sharing Operations at Mobilize, Renault has taken note of where other services went wrong.