PARIS -- PSA Group will spin off its Free2Move mobility services activities into a separate company to encourage innovation and agility, CEO Carlos Tavares said.
PSA now bundles its mobility services, including fleet management, car-sharing, short- and long-term rentals, parking, and electric vehicle charging points, under the Free2Move label. One of the goals of the new company is to offer all these services through a single app.
The new company will have 150 employees working in design, software, data, e-commerce and sales, PSA said, and will have activities in 170 countries. It now has a dedicated website.
The aim "is to develop a state-of-the-art software platform for mobility services," Tavares said Tuesday at PSA’s first-half financial results meeting.
The mobility company will be based in Paris and led by Brigitte Courtehoux, who is a member of PSA’s executive committee and vice president for the Free2Move brand.
Automakers have struggled to turn the promise of mobility services into profits. A number of short-term rental operations, also called car-sharing, have been shut down, and rivals BMW and Daimler are collaborating in an effort to achieve sustainable profitability.
"Step by step, we are making money with these activities," Tavares said, noting that revenue grew by 23 percent in the first half compared with 2019, and the number of active customers rose by 25 percent to 1.2 million.
PSA's Push to Pass strategic plan targets 300 million euros in mobility services revenues by 2021, although PSA has not broken out revenue figures for the unit.
"We are growing in a profitable manner as we understand better what kind of business model should be implemented to make the operations sustainable," Tavares said.
PSA officials have said that the fleet management side of the mobility services business is profitable.
PSA says it currently has 2,400 vehicles in car-sharing programs; 25,000 available for rent; 2,000 in the new Car on Demand long-term rental program; and 500,000 vehicles in its fleet management programs.
TravelCar, a mobility partner of PSA since 2016 and since 2019 part of the group, has also been fully integrated into Free2Move, PSA said.
TravelCar has joined with PSA in a North American program to provide parking and car sharing, and the companies have also collaborated on Free2Move Rent, a short-term rental program available in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.
