VIDEO: Zipcar has $1 billion dreams... and 46 members per car?
Zipcar's $1 billion ambition - Click above to watch the video after the break
How many cars do you think Zipcar owns around the world? Did you know it was 6,500?
How big could Zipcar one day become? How about a $1 billion company?
These are two of the numbers mentioned in an interview that CEO Scott Griffith gave to Fortune recently. Griffith also said that, today, Zipcar has about 300,000 members, which give us an average of about 46 members per car. To some of us on staff, that seems incredibly high, and to others of us, incredibly low. Either way, in order to reach the $1 billion goal, Zipcar will need to get to the one million member level, Griffith figures.
Before that happens, Griffith needs to convince a lot more organizations to adopt the Zipcar model. We know about how Zipcar can work for individuals – basically, easy car rentals by the hour – but Griffith is more excited about the behind-the-scenes operations. For example, people need to clean and maintain all 6,500 vehicles, right? The back-end work that Zipcar is doing today to make sure there is time in the schedule for all of these cars to be prepped and ready for customers when they want them will help tremendously as the company begins to add more and more electric vehicles to the fleet. Griffith says it is just a step away from scheduling maintenance to finding time to recharge electric cars:
The next city to get an electric Zipcar, Griffith said, will probably be Washington, D.C. Watch the video after the jump to learn more.Our system is going to integrate very well with electric vehicles, and that's one of the things that governments and universities and corporate partners are very interested in. How are they going to schedule all of this and manage the logistics of having electric vehicles.
[Source: Fortune via CNNMoney.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ralph 2:59PM (8/30/2009)
"Zipcar has about 300,000 members, which give us an average of about 46 members per car. To some of us on staff, that seems incredibly high, and to others of us, incredibly low. Either way, in order to reach the $1 billion goal, Zipcar will need to get to the one million member level, Griffith figures"
@ 46 people for each car, if it operates 24/7 that's only 3.65 hours a week per member.
I don't buy any of these figures.
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imercury 7:33PM (8/30/2009)
I was a flexcar member and by default became a zip car member. When they were Flexcar there were a hundred + cars in Los Angeles. At that time I spent a average of $150 per month . When the companies merged they concentrated on USC and UCLA locations and limited the number of cars and they also increased their prices. I have since spent $75 total in 2 years. Now it is less competitive then renting. The last car I was in was not clean. ie they are skimping on upkeep. Scott Griffith is a bean counter and cost cutter who lacks vision.( common in American school of business). The company is supplying a very limited market that has never seen profit. Obviously once the market grows to maturity others will step in that are better at it then ZIPCAR like National or Hertz.
gerrrg 6:51AM (8/31/2009)
Most of the time, the cars just sit there in designated parking spots. A lot of the memberships are provided as free, with new condo purchases in downtown, so I don't know that many people actually use them, when they already have their own car.
Where I'm at, there's quite a few of them, and they seem most useful as a way for small companies to avoid buying a company car.
ralph 10:48AM (9/01/2009)
I thought it was a good idea at first, but then when you get down to it, it is way cheaper to just rent a car, or for shorter trips call a cab or take the metro. I actually called them and asked they why anyone would even consider them, (after I found out the price). 27-35 bucks a day and I get a clean car from any rental place.
enhager 8:31PM (9/24/2009)
Zipcar could be a benefit to the University Park neighborhood.
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