The Belgian importer has just validated its carsharing service program, after a conclusive pilot. In Antwerp, D’Ieteren and Vulog have equipped a fleet of 350 vehicles available to subscribers.
D’Ieteren is now also an actor in carsharing. A few days ago, the group officially announced the launch of its new service, Poppy, in the streets of the Flemish city of Antwerp. After a test phase comprising some 30 units, the importer of the Volkswagen group brands in the other country has deployed a fleet of 350 vehicles, including 200 Volkswagen e-golf and 150 Audi A3 g-tron.
To do this, D’Ieteren entrusted the project’s controls to its subsidiary Lab Box, born from a business unit that became a full-fledged company. This one has made an agreement with the French of Vulog, in order to develop Poppy. “Poppy is a company that owns Vulog technology,” clarifies Valentin Harscher, a partner at Lab Box and conductor of the service, contacted by the Journal of the Automobile. Its teams manage marketing, logistics and other billing functions of the Poppy business.
Business builder for the group
The Lab Box embodies the will of D’Ieteren’s executives to open up to new business models, “even if they compete with classical distribution,” says Valentin Harscher. The latter does not play completely the break, quite the opposite: “We have created synergies with the group, whose captive provides us with leased vehicles and sales outlets provide maintenance.”
What is the profitability of a car sharing service launched by a distribution group? For the project manager, the vehicles must be used “two to three hours a day” to reach the threshold of return on investment. It allows two to three years of operation to create sufficient customer base. This will not be too much considering the size of the fleet in a territory that had a little more than 513,000 souls in the 2015 census. “We will study other host cities”, says the margin Harscher Valentin.
In an intermodal mobility application
Other projects will follow at Lab Box. The most advanced should come out early in the summer. This is a mobile application for intermodal transport. Antwerp will always serve as an experimental ground. This will integrate Poppy alongside shared bikes, taxi and other solutions. This “app” could adopt a B-to-C or B-to-B-to-C model, depending on the equations.
As a reminder, the Vulog platform currently processes data from more than 10 million carsharing trips per year. It is notably operated by Evo in Vancouver (largest independent operator in North America with 1250 vehicles), emov in Madrid (600 electric vehicles operated by PSA and Eysa), GreenMobility in Copenhagen (450 electric vehicles).