Bolt will begin offering car-sharing in the UK for the first time through a partnership with London-based Hiyacar.
Hiyacar is a peer-to-peer car-sharing service that lets individual owners and local businesses rent their vehicles out by the hour, with 265,000 users enrolled on the platform.
From this autumn, riders will be able to book Hiyacar’s service through the Bolt app in London. It marks the debut of the ‘Bolt Drive’ service in the UK, with car-sharing to be offered alongside the shared mobility company’s ride-hailing, e-bikes and e-scooter services.
“This is our first car-sharing launch in the UK and Hiyacar is an obvious partner,” Diego Ramirez-Gölz, Regional General Manager for Bolt Drive, told Zag Daily.
“More than 75% of Inner London residents don’t own a car and neither do most of our own customers. They just need one occasionally for moving house or a weekend away. Now it’ll be in the same app they already use for everything else.”
The Bolt Drive model varies by market. In some countries, Bolt operates its own car-sharing vehicles, while in other markets like Poland, Portugal and now London, the company integrates local operators into its app.
Bolt could not disclose where exactly the car-sharing service will run in London, vehicle numbers, a specific launch date or whether the service would expand across the UK.
According to its website, Hiyacar operates its London service in Hackney, Dalston, Walthamstow, Clapham, Islington, Streatham, Balham, Kings Cross, Greenwich and Tower Hamlets, indicating that Bolt’s offering will be amongst these areas. Riders will be able to book a Hiyacar vehicle through the Bolt app without paying a membership fee.
Bolt’s car-sharing entrance into the UK comes at a testing time for the sector.
Zipcar, a global car-sharing service and one of the UK’s largest operators, announced it was ceasing operations in the country last year in what it said was a move to “streamline operations, improve returns and position the company for long-term sustainability and growth”. The company had gradually wound down its service in Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol to focus on London before completely removing itself from the UK, leaving 650,000 users with one less car sharing option.
Bolt is now positioning its first UK car-sharing offering as a means of plugging the gap left by Zipcar.
