Toyota investment in Uber draws new line in car makers' battle over on-demand transport
Thu 26 May 2016
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Toyota has announced that it is buying a stake in the ride-hailing company, Uber. The move follows investments by Volkswagen and General Motors in Gett and Lyft respectively, and suggests that traditional models of car ownership may be on the verge of significant change
As well as buying a small stake in Uber, Toyota is to begin offering leases to Uber drivers, who’ll be able to cover their payments with what they earn for carrying the app’s users.
“Ridesharing has huge potential in terms of shaping the future of mobility. Through this collaboration with Uber, we would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to customers,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, a senior officer at Toyota, reported by Yahoo finance.
A report by Bloomberg says that aligning with Uber, Lyft and Gett represent strategic moves by the world’s biggest carmakers to have an inside look at an industry taking aim at the concept of car ownership. Bloomberg says that the hailing apps are luring outsiders with auto industry ambitions including Apple Inc., which invested $1 billion this month in Chinese car-booking giant Didi Chuxing.
Gett, the taxi-ordering rival to Uber, which is based in Tel Aviv, said it has raised $300 million from Germany’s Volkswagen. In January, General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft, the second-largest U.S. ride-hailing service.
BMW has also recently said that it has taken an unspecified stake in Scoop Technologies which offers a car-pooling app that matches employees of companies such as Cisco Systems and Microsoft to share vehicles for commutes in the San Francisco Bay area. The move follows BMW starting ReachNow in Seattle, an expanded car sharing service that will let users book chauffeur services and have cars delivered.
A similar service, Drive Now, has recently been established by BMW in North East London. It enables users to enjoy short-term rentals of BMW and Mini vehicles and, through use of an app, have flexibility over where the cars are picked up and dropped off.
According to a US-based automotive analyst (quoted in Bloomberg): “The automakers see a threat and an opportunity. If all they’re doing is selling vehicles and don’t see the customer again for years, then that’s a problem. If they can find a way to generate ongoing income, then that’s what they want to do.”
Note: A BMW speaker will be discussing the car makers' reasons for establishing Drive Now and related developments in a session entitled: 'Maximising carbon reductions through efficiency, intelligence and autonomy' at the LowCVP Conference on 30 June. More details here.
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