Interview

 How To Make Car-Sharing Work: Interviewing the CEO of Hyre about Profitability, Policy and Market-Fit

By Lars Christian Grødem-Olsen, MD Movability

Nils Petter Nordbø, CEO of Hyre, reveals why their lean strategies outperform OEM models like Volvo (who discontinued their car-sharing operations in Sweden), how policy tweaks can supercharge EV rentals, and recommendations for cities on how to foster sustainable car-sharing.

Key Insights from Our Interview

• Leaner Org = More Likely To Profit

  Hyre can charge half of what some larger OEM-based services do while still inching toward profitability. Their focus on efficiency and low head-count has helped them succeed in markets where better-funded operators struggle.

• The EV Incentive Dilemma

  In Norway, private electric cars avoid VAT, but rental EVs face a 25% tax, nudging renters toward gas cars. A few policy tweaks could cut EV rental costs by up to 35%, improving car-sharing affordability.

• Less Cars and Better Transit means Good markets for Car-Sharing

  Market-fit in shared mobility can be difficult, especially for car-sharing. A good market is characterized by competitive public transportation and limitations on private cars (less parking, more tolls etc.). Trondheims public transit authority AtB offers two hours free car-sharing with Hyre as part of their monthly ticket, which provides a win-win situation for both parties.

Click here to read the full interview

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Mobility Research

Escooter as a Strategic Connector for Transit 

The main issue of integrating escooters with transit isn’t necessarily how, but why? 

The how is: 

Pricing Innovation: Bundled pricing between transit and e-scooter services - the more you discount users the more they will adopt the service

Seamless Integration: This means access to escooters in transit apps, and vice versa for escooters apps to transit tickets 

Policy Support: Regulatory frameworks need to support subsidization from transit agencies to e-scooter operators, like it is with bus operators 

But why should the general public be supportive of tax payer €€€ going to making escooters cheaper as well as tens of PTAs and PTOs worldwide creating source code for escooter integrations from scratch in their transit apps? 

The answer is making transit more competitive vs the car using Shared Mobility as a connector and complementer. A study done in the US recently supports this narrative (link below).

It confirms that 40% say they view escooters as a last-mile option for them, and shows through a Stated Choice Experiment that users find the joint service more competitive if the escooter ride is discounted. 

The combination of Shared Mobility and Transit is what we at Movability have chosen to call Public Mobility (see our article on Public Mobility in World Economic forum) - a way of looking at transit that is not just limited to buses and trains, but expands to shared escooters, bike-share, short-distance carpooling as well as car-sharing. 

The example from Hyre, where AtB monthly ticket holders are given 2 free car-sharing hours a month is an example of this.

Check out the study here

News

Stories we loved this month

Oslo escooter permit results

We at Movability would like to congratulate Bolt, Voi, and Ryde on winning the Oslo tender and securing two more years in Oslo! We look forward to using the service and are excited about having access to twice as many vehicles over a much larger area.

1. Voi is adjusted EBIT profitable due to prolonged lifespan on escooters

Voi’s announcement is a positive signal in the industry showing that vehicles are improving. It’s easier to reach profitability when a vehicle is written off in 8 years vs 2 years, which is where the industry was a few years ago.

It will be interesting to see if Voi’s scooters can be competitive for eight years. As we’ve written about earlier, the commercial lifespan of an escooter or an ebike also depends on the competing vehicles in a city as well as rising maintenance costs. So, not just how many years an operator technically can squeeze out of a vehicle.

Read more about it here

2. Manhattan morning commute time drops with congestion toll

Ever since NYC introduced its congestion toll on January 5, morning commute times have sped up dramatically. Time spent is nearly 50% down on the Holland Tunnel and 30% on the Queensboro and Williamsburg Bridges. Meanwhile, about 33,000 fewer cars are hitting Manhattan streets daily (a 5% drop), and subway ridership has jumped by 7.3% on weekdays.

This significant traffic reduction could inspire other gridlocked cities to follow suit. It might also be wise to invest some of the toll revenue in incentives for other modes such as car-sharing, further cutting down on single-occupancy vehicle trips.

Read full article here

3. Lime’s £20m investment in London

Lime is investing £20 million in London. This includes creating over 2,500 new dedicated parking spaces and increasing on-street patrol teams by 60% (up to more than 400 members) to address rampant misparking. Demand for Lime’s e-bikes increased by 61% last year alone with 16 million commuter journeys taken.

Lime has long been criticized due to its rapid scaling in London, which has led to misparking and friction with authorities. This hefty investment seems a response to mounting pressure, illustrating how tier-1 cities can use their leverage to push operators into investing in their markets.

Read full article here

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