Over the past few years, Europcar, has become a global provider of mobility solutions, offering a wide range of services such as, car rental, van and truck rental, chauffeur services, carsharing, and peer-to-peer carsharing.
In the last few years, Europcar's growth strategy has been specifically addressed with a number of acquisitions, including Ubeeqo, a European start-up specialised in car-sharing, and Brunel, a provider of chauffeur services.
Photo courtesy of Europcar.
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A new name and identity to reflect the transformation of Europcar Group has been selected, rebranding Europcar as "Europcar Mobility Group," the company announced.
Since 2014, Europcar has undertaken an in-depth transformation by growing faster at an international level (i.e. China) and addressing new car rental use cases (i.e. low cost). It has also been diversifying its activities beyond the historical car rental business. From a car rental specialist, the Group has become a global provider of mobility solutions, offering a wide range of services such as, car rental, van and truck rental, chauffeur services, carsharing, and peer-to-peer carsharing.
“Our customers’ expectations and needs are rapidly evolving, and we all know now that the traditional model of owning a car doesn’t fit-for-all anymore," Caroline Parot, Europcar Mobility Group CEO, said in a statement. "Furthermore, thanks to technology and digital innovation, there are now many other smart and cost-effective solutions to get from one point to another, and that’s what really matters for people. In this context, there is a clear need for global mobility providers, making people’s life easier. We are convinced that we are in a very good position to play our role as a leader in this paradigm shift."
In the last few years, the Group’s growth strategy has been specifically addressed with a number of acquisitions, including Ubeeqo, a European start-up specialised in car-sharing, and Brunel, a provider of chauffeur services. More recently, the Group also bought Scooty, a scooter-sharing start-up.
The Group also took minority investments in Snappcar, the second largest international peer-to-peer carsharing player in Europe, and Wanderio, a multimodal search and comparison platform.
“We want to be the preferred ‘Mobility Service Company’ by offering attractive alternative solutions to vehicle ownership," Parot continued. "Considering the identified market needs and our main strengths – among which are a comprehensive worldwide network and renowned expertise in fleet management – we believe that fulfilling this mission will allow us to sustainably create value and growth.”
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In addition to its investments in new mobility solutions, the Group continues to strengthen its original vehicle rental expertise. In 2017, this commitment was underlined by the acquisition of Goldcar, the low-cost car rental leader in Europe, and Buchbinder, one of the major vehicle rental leaders in Germany.
By being part of Europcar Mobility Group, each of the commercial brands in the Group will be reinforced, giving them specific territories of expression to increase their customers’ engagement. However, it is not replacing the commercial brand Europcar, nor any other of the Group’s commercial brands.
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