We had dozens of deep interviews with the car industry's opinion leaders throughout the business concept development phase. Among them, we had interviews with Central Europe's two leading car-share provider company's CEO. Here is the outcome:
Car-share companies are not making a profit and will not make it for a long time; however, they are not making that much loss.
The market's growth is way behind expectations, and there is no hope for a booming business.
Car-share investors are getting day-by-day less optimistic. As soon as they stop investing in this market, car-share companies will need to close their businesses.
Drivers are not willing to pay reasonably more for better cars, and they are likely to pay roughly the same price for simplified cars.
One-third of the total costs is the car fleet. Another third is the operational costs. One-third is everything else. If they could decrease the operational and car fleet costs by 20-25%, that would make it profitable.
Car-share companies had great expectations from Citroen Ami, but unfortunately, that is not cheap enough, and the promised car-share-friendliness has remained a promise.
One of the two companies is a franchise and has no opportunity to choose its cars. The other is happy to be an early bird and eager to try this car. He is willing to gain exclusivity in the market.
It seems that we have an amazing problem-solution fit.