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- Global shortage of vehicles means that fleet optimization is of paramount importance
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – ekar, the Middle East's first and largest personal mobility company, has diversified and further grown its fleet by injecting 1,000 brand new 2021 model cars from car rental partners in direct response to increased demand for personal mobility in the face of a global car shortage and consistent surge pricing from chauffeur-driven mobility options.
"Car rental companies are in awe of what’s going on at ekar. We are delivering unprecedented returns for the car rental industry via our revenue share programs, while providing data insights and analytics that the car rental industry has never since experienced. In turn, ekar is becoming increasingly data-rich. The more cars we add, the easier for users to book a vehicle, the more efficient our service becomes, which leads to decision automation. This flywheel effect is a testament to a solid product market fit and a compliment to an in-house team of superstars that keep me awe-inspired,” comments Vilhelm Hedberg, Founder, ekar.
In addition to the fleet growth, ekar’s most recent breakthroughs are dynamic pricing and predictive AI-driven fleet optimization and rebalancing. Using proprietary algorithms, the ekar data and tech teams have been able to improve the company’s booking percentages over 30% by recognizing latent demand. Carsharing cars are positioned in optimal areas in the cities in which ekar operates, ensuring a car is within walking distance.
A recent survey conducted of one thousand ekar users asked, 'what could ekar add or change to the current pay-per-minute service,' with 68% of users requesting a comprehensive range of pricing options and a wider range of cars added to the App.
In direct response to users' feedback, ekar has added 1,000 new 2021 vehicles to its fleet, ranging from economical, compact sedans, sports cars, sporty mini SUVs, and family-sized starting as low as 0.70 AED per minute. ekar now boasts the widest range of self-drive mobility vehicle options in the Middle East, with 77 car models across 7 cities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
"The recently added Kia, Hyundai, and Mazda vehicles have been met with great enthusiasm from our Dubai users. These new cars are experiencing exceptionally high demand levels, and we fully expect utilization levels to surpass 2019 numbers, when ekar Dubai was the highest utilized carshare service in the world. The continued influx of EXPO visitors, tourists, and residents seeking cost-effective mobility solutions is a testament to how self-drive has a seat at the mobility table in the Middle East, and ekar is the clear market-leader in the space. We are extremely bullish for the future," concludes Hedberg.
ekar is the only company in the Middle East able to offer users access to the entire self-drive vertical for cars from pay-per-minute to monthly rentals. Users can choose from thousands of short-term pay-per-minute, daily, and weekly carshare options, plus longer-term monthly car subscriptions packages with ekar’s ‘Self-drive Super App.’ ekar is releasing Peer to Peer rentals, or the AirBnB of cars, in select cities over the next few weeks.
Since its inception in 2016 by Founder Vilhelm Hedberg, ekar has grown from a 15-vehicle pilot program with Etihad Airways to a multi-country service used by more than 250,000 customers and booked an impressive 1.5 million trips. ekar operates in UAE, KSA, and will be launching Thailand and Malaysia in December 2021 with Egypt and Turkey launches scheduled for early 2022.
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About ekar:
ekar is the Middle East's first and largest personal mobility company, providing users on-demand access to a network of thousands of carshare and subscription leasing vehicles within its 'Self-Drive Super App'. ekar's vision is to improve the way people consume transportation and is achieving scale by MaaS-enabling car rental and leasing companies via ekar's Mobility OS.
ekar was the highest utilized free-floating carshare service in the world in 2019, awarded GCC Car Sharing Providers Company of The Year in 2019 by Frost & Sullivan, Top 5 Startups in 2018 by Forbes Middle East, and Founder Vilhelm Hedberg has been crowned SME Leader of the Year 2018 by Arabian Business. For more information, please visit www.ekar.me.
© Press Release 2021
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