The Middle East’s first carshare operator, ekar has made the bold prediction that by 2025 carshare members will outnumber car owners in the Emirates.
Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour – allowing people to enjoy the benefits of car ownership without the burden of fixed costs.
According to Navigant Consulting, the revenue from global carsharing will grow to $6.2bn by 2020, with over 12 million members worldwide.
“We observed a problem and went about figuring out how find to a solution and make the joys of driving car just that – joyful!” commented Vilhelm Hedberg, co-founder and CEO of ekar.
Like Careem or Uber, ekar allows users to reserve vehicles via its mobile app and website for rent in the UAE while offering a “pay-by-the-hour” pricing scheme as a cost-effective alternative to daily and monthly rentals.
The carsharing concept delivers on-demand mobility while leaving a greatly reduced environmental footprint. On average, models project that for every carshare in operation, 17 privately owned cars are off the road.
In the UAE, ekar is the exclusive licensee of a German technology that currently accounts for 40% of the global carsharing market share.
The company has already launched a B2B service for the 2,000 full-time staff at Etihad and the 75,000 full-time staff at Emirates.
It has also been selected by the RTA as provider for carsharing Project 100 announced at GITEX in October 2016, and reached an agreement to set up its first service in a free zone in JLT.
ekar offers two models: the Nissan Juke 1.6LTR AT 5STR 2016 and Nissan Sentra 1.6LTR Saloon 2016.
