E-Mobility on Demand - Corporate car sharing as an efficient and modern mobility solution

  - •  

  - •  

Reading time: 3 Minutes
Corporate Carsharing Contribution image: Test fleet Impact Hub Dresden - contribution image - switch over

Admit it: When was the last time you watched the latest film, your favourite series or the latest Champions League match via Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or one of the now numerous "video-on-demand" services? Not so long ago, was it? Thanks to ever-improving technology and availability as well as the attractiveness of the offers, the number of users of VoD services in Germany has been rising steadily for years - and an end to the growth does not seem to be in sight due to the high market potential. So that's why corporate car sharing?

"Interestingly, exactly the same parameters are found when it comes to the topic of electromobility - only the time scale is shifted by a few years: Constantly evolving technology, attractiveness and availability with huge market potential are therefore reason enough to already focus on electromobile offers today," finds Julian von Gebhardi, Managing Director of Impact Hub Dresden (IHD). Together with two other co-founders and six employees, von Gebhardi runs the Impact Hub near Dresden's main railway station as an ideas laboratory for linking start-ups, SMEs and research.

Our trainee Lydia talked to Impact Hub Managing Director Julian von Gebhardi about the topic of "E-Mobility on Demand".

 

BENEFIT FROM THE RESOURCES OF THE PARTNER AND THUS OPERATE SUSTAINABLY

In the meantime, the IHD has more than 150 members - the nine employees are usually in the house, but are also on the road more and more often for business appointments. And so it became increasingly difficult to require staff to travel on business by using private mobility services. "One of the core values of the Impact Hub's work is a sustainable and socially responsible understanding of entrepreneurship. Of course, we also want to live this - and so an interesting cooperation opportunity with the DREWAG/ENSO Group* arose," reports Managing Director Julian von Gebhardi. "Since the group of companies is a member of our company, we knew about their strong commitment to the topic of electromobility - a topic that is very close to our hearts due to our value compass. Combined with our employees' desire for a practicable mobility concept, the idea for corporate car sharing grew."
*From 01.01.2021 SachsenEnergie Group

The focus of the IHD's daily work is primarily on the potential of digitalisation and the opportunities it opens up for all sectors. Working on innovations and solutions, exchanging ideas and developing them in cross-sector projects - this results in numerous synergy effects: Established companies benefit from the agility, visions and innovation speed of the start-ups. Young entrepreneurs, on the other hand, benefit from the management competence, leadership experience and financial strength of the established companies. The idea of corporate car sharing between the "young guns" of the Impact Hub and the two established energy providers reads like a prime example here. It is an exciting experiment for all partners.

Corporate Carsharing: COOPERATION AGREEMENT AS A TEST POSITION

On the basis of electromobility, a plan finally emerged to use potentials and structures across companies - and thus to create added value and benefit from each other. After all, building up one's own vehicle fleet involves some effort and, with nine employees and irregular use, is not necessarily economical either. The SachsenEnergie Group has a large vehicle fleet with an already very good utilisation of the vehicles. This is to be further increased by means of a dynamic pooling system.

The vehicles are intelligently utilised - this is economical and ecological. Since January, the employees of the Impact Hub have therefore been able to access the vehicles of the SachsenEnergie vehicle fleet, creating the "(E-)Mobility on Demand" model. The fleet can charge for its services by renting out available vehicles and the IHD saves having to build up its own fleet - a corporate car sharing model that is sustainable and uses mutual potential.

"We can access all vehicles in the fleet, not just the electrically powered models. However, our focus of use is of course clearly on the electric cars," Julian von Gebhardi describes the cooperation. The test provision is initially to run for a period of 6 months, the first three months of which were even free of charge for the IHD employees. "The project is insanely exciting for both sides. In a limited but representative period of time, we are investigating the central factors such as usage behaviour and intensity, acceptance as well as handling of the offer. We want to see how many of our members are interested. At the end of the test period, we will be able to draw a clear conclusion as to whether the corporate car sharing model has generated real added value for the partners. At the same time, it will be possible to examine the relationship between the use of combustion and electric vehicles," Julian von Gebhardi is curious. "The needs analysis showed us that there is fundamental potential for the use of such a car pool, because most young companies do not want to build up their own fleet. They are enthusiastic about concepts that are about sharing resources. “

The vehicles can be booked online. New bookings can be created there and past bookings can be managed. "Our experience has been very positive. We have been able to test it many times in the team and have been pleasantly surprised, because the booking process is very simple and unbureaucratic. Picking up and dropping off the electric cars is also problem-free," Julian von Gebhardi reports from the tests so far.

We will report on the progress of the experiment in the course of the year.

A contribution by Marcel Duparré

Share post

Guide to switching

Our guide

to switch

Everything you need to know about funding,
costs, best practice and more ...

Our guide

to switch

Everything you need to know about funding,
costs, best practice and more ...

Guide to switching
Search

Imprint

Data protection