Kinto Executive - Politicians often speak positively about car-sharing, but they don’t do much

OEMs have struggled to succeed in building their own car-sharing operations as well as investing in the right companies. Recently Volvo winded down their operations. However, Toyota’s Kinto operations is still going strong. I spoke to Olof Holmgren, GM of Kinto Sweden to find out about their operating model, profitability and their thoughts around policy. He delivered quite the blow to politicians when I asked him if Policy was a focus area for them - Policians love car-sharing, but don’t really do anything. So their focus is on building a great car-sharing service.

I agree with Olofs point. Not much has been done. Rather the other way around - operators have been given a much more difficult task than private car-owners. However, I do see some hope in the Norwegian Green Party’s party programme that includes favorable goals for car-share to make life more convenient without a private car in more areas. These additions came from the input from the workshop Movability arranged together with the Green Party last year, which saw turnout from operators, bureaucrats as well as voters. The Green Party still have to negotiate about a ton of other important issues on their plan and this is not an issue that drives voter sentiment the same way updating train infrastructure or increasing taxi welfare does.

Read the full interview with Olof Holmgren, GM of Kinto Sweden here (4 minute read)

Topics covered in the interview:

• Car-sharing usage patterns

• Policy is not favorable towards car-sharing operations

• Kinto’s operating model

Read the full interview here, and let me know what you think!

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