Skip to main content

Volkswagen Invests $300 Million in Ride Hailing Service

Volkswagen AG has announced that it has invested $300 million in Gett, a popular ride hailing service in Europe, Russia, and Israel (where it was founded), and which recently broke into New York. Forbes reports that the company claims revenues of $500 million and that they are profitable in their earliest markets.

The company is similar to Uber and  Lyft in that customers can hail a ride at the touch of a button, although they currently promise no surge pricing and their operations are wider ranging than just giving rides. Gett also provides delivery and logistics services.

“The Volkswagen Group and Gett is a great strategic partnership,” says Shahar Waiser, Gett’s founder and CEO. “The pay-per-ride domain is growing rapidly. In that context, Gett provides VW with the technology to expand beyond car ownership to on-demand mobility for consumers and businesses,”

Volkswagen AG chairman Matthias Muller adds that the company aims to become a “world leading mobility provider by 2025.”

The move comes among a flurry of investments from major companies in similar services. Toyota recently invested in Uber, while GM invested in Lyft, and Apple invested Didi Kuaidi.

Despite the large investments, what these new partnerships will look like remains to be seen. For General Motors, though, the investment came as a way of selling more cars in urban areas, reports Automotive News. The American giant’s sales have long been bolstered by pick-up and SUV sales in rural areas, while their smaller cars have traditionally done poorly. GM hopes to remedy that with the help of Lyft, which does well in urban areas.

Automotive News also reports that short term leasing plans, designed to appeal to ride-hailing-app-drivers could become a way to generate sales faster than through traditional leases.

Whatever the case is with the partnership between Gett and Volkswagen, more details will come over time.

The post Volkswagen Invests $300 Million in Ride Hailing Service appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1Z0iptm
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 10 Most Expensive VWs at Barrett-Jackson

Barrett-Jackson just wrapped up its 46th annual Scottsdale auction, which set all kinds of records, including the sale of Kindig-It Design’s 1965 21-Window Deluxe Bus for $302,500 (pictured above and below). Not only did that bus set an auction record, it was the highest priced Volkswagen in Scottsdale that week. While it outdid the next closest VW by quite a margin, it wasn’t the only high priced VW at the show. Here, are the highest priced VWs from the auction: 1. $302,500: 1965 Type II 21-Window Deluxe Bus  Featured on Velocity Channel’s Bitchin’ Rides, this microbus was completely restored by Kindig-it Design and repainted in Mercedes Black and Bentley Magnolia White. With a 1915cc 120 hp flat four out back and a 4-speed transmission, this bus sits on 17″ wheels. 2. $143,000: 1967 21-Window Deluxe Bus Not sure if you noticed a theme here, but we have another 21-window bus in black and white, but this time the colors are flipped and it has a 2,027 cc engine. Comes with a ...
Post a Comment
Read more