swisster - mobility.

This article first appeared on Swisster on June 3, 2008

Mobility targets more companies, students and expats

Tom Armitage - Zurich

If anything defines the Zeitgeist, then car-sharing might be it: concerns about CO2 emissions, surging petrol prices and a trend towards downsizing among motorists is driving user figures higher at pioneering Swiss car-sharing cooperative Mobility. Small and medium-sized businesses and students are increasingly seeing the green benefits of the bright red pool cars.

Turn up. Log in. Drive out. Mobility was not the first car-sharing scheme but it is certainly made car-sharing simple. Use the internet or phone to pre-book a car or van from a menu of different body-styles, choose your pick-up point - often a station or public car park - and your drop-off time and away you go. A personal chip card unlocks the doors and releases the immobilizer. The car keys are in the glovebox or there is simply a stop-start button. An onboard computer lets you lengthen your reservation while you are on the move.

“Our target is flexibility,” said Mobility Chief Executive Rolf Fischer, a car-sharing veteran and pioneer of the multi-user system. “For instance, there is no need to look for a private parking space, which in a place like Geneva is virtually impossible and very expensive.”

Mobility already has 79,700 users and the company is looking to expand this number by 7,500 this year. Among their target audiences are expats living in Switzerland, who might be reluctant to deal with the bureaucracy and cost of buying a car when they only plan to be in the country for a short time.

“One of the main reasons why people coming to Switzerland from a foreign country might want to use Mobility is that they suddenly have to reorganise their transport needs,” said Mobility’s marketing manager Janine Margiotta. “This is why this group of people are particularly interesting for us.”

Mobility was founded in 1997 but its roots go back 10 years before that when Fischer created an eight-person car-share in Stans, canton Lucerne, with a friend from his time in the military service. Significantly, the shared Opel Kadett was red – a colour used on much of the Mobility fleet today. Fischer returned to Mobility in 2000 by which time it was a pan-Swiss cooperative.

The firm now operates a fleet of 2,000 cars, ranging from budget Fiat Pandas through smart Alfa-Romeos to load-lugging vans, all of which can be used on an hourly basis. The most popular choices are estate cars and economy cars, says Fischer, since these are the vehicles that best cater to the needs of families or individuals wishing to make an odd shopping trip or journey.

In addition to private customers, Mobility is increasingly targeting small- and medium-sized companies, particularly those who need flexible transport and who are keen to improve the environmental sustainability of their operations. The cooperative has 2,100 companies already signed up and hopes to secure more of its potential market of 15,000 firms. At present, around 20 percent of the company’s revenues come from business customers; in future, says Fischer, it could be as much as 30 percent.

Institutions such as universities are also an attractive potential market for Mobility: the company has already developed a system for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich where students and employees can use a university card to unlock and drive Mobility vehicles. Mobility plans to start a similar system with the EPFL in Lausanne this year and could appear on other campuses too.

“We want to expand the system which we have with ETH to all the large universities in Switzerland,” says Margiotta. “Students are a very interesting target market for us. It is a great opportunity to show students early in their careers what intelligent mobility is like.”

“The whole discussion about sustainability is helping us,” she added.

Mobility calculates that car-sharing vehicles produce 1,458 tons less carbon dioxide per year than the average for Swiss registered new cars. Mobility also offers hybrid petrol-electric vehicles like the Honda Civic. “Car-sharing users save about 200 kg of CO2 per year so it this aspect is built in. If you use car-sharing, then you are doing something for the environment,” said Fischer.

Mobility’s sights also extend beyond the country’s borders: the company has formed a joint venture with Austria car retailer Denzel to create DenzelDrive, a localised version of the Mobility system. Further European expansion could include a presence in France and Italy, although this would take the form of a licensing agreement with local operators rather than a joint venture, the CEO said.

What could not be emulated in foreign markets is the extensive Swiss network. Fischer likens the cooperative’s function in its home market to the service offered by the post office, SBB and Swisscom, which guarantee coverage throughout the country no matter what local demand is actually like.

“The main market for Mobility is clearly in the cities,” said Fischer. “However, we have 1,050 locations across the country. In the villages, people use the car just on Saturday for shopping or on Sundays for visiting their grandmother. Or perhaps they use a mobility car when they come to the big cities in addition to the public transport network.”

In some Swiss villages, there are not more than one or two people using each car per day. But local villagers are often grateful to the scheme: some users voluntarily clean and maintain the fleet in a sign of their belief in the scheme.

“There is a strong identification with the cooperative,” said Fischer. “At the moment, there are no plans to change the cooperative set-up. We are able to finance our own growth at present. Mobility is not just a company, it is a bit like a club.”

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