Here comes Zipcar Inc., the world leader in car sharing. Bloomberg may have
exaggerated its plans for an IPO in a report this morning, but as
Dealscape notes this is nevertheless a company on the move. Pushed forward by entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who made the car-sharing idea mainstream, backed by venture capital, it's yet another example of how innovation in an industry tends to come from outside the big companies who lead it.
Meanwhile, coming on strong in car-sharing--and possibly putting pressure on Zipcar to raise capital and keep scaling up--is Hertz Global Holdings Inc. with its Connect by Hertz offering, currently available in London, New York and Paris. And true to the classic script, an important even in Hertz's push was an acquisition.
In April
Hertz acquired Eileo S.A., which it described as "the Paris-based leader in the design and deployment of best-in-class car sharing technology." Hertz was already using the technology for its Connect service.
Not that this is a two-car race. Giant Enterprise Rent-A-Car started moving toward a car-sharing (as distinct from an hourly rental)
service in 2007.
All these services added together still don't add up to a big business. Zipcar has about 6,500 cars and 300,000 subscribers. But at a time of great upheaval in the auto industry--or should we call it the personal transportation industry?--it's fascinating to see.-
Kenneth Klee
This post was updated at 14:39 on Thursday to reflect the reporting in our Dealscape post, showing that the company has "no immediate plans" to go public.
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