The car-sharing company Turo is opening in the UK, styling itself as a mobility version of the hugely successful Airbnb, meaning car owners can rent out their vehicles when not being used.
Turo says it now has more than eight million users across 56 countries and that it’s “on a mission to put the world’s one billion cars – of which there are 31.3 million in the UK – to use”.
Its business concept is based on a view that car owners “are sitting on a potential goldmine” because an average trip on Turo earns an owner £130, with 75 percent of the trip’s cost paid direct to the car owner within five days. “If an owner rented their car just five days a month,” it says, “They would earn approximately £7,800 a year; enough to cover typical repayments, road tax and insurance.”
Andre Haddad, Turo CEO, commented, “Today, we’re thrilled to announce Turo is launching our peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace in the United Kingdom. By launching our full peer-to-peer marketplace in the UK we’re taking another major step closer to putting the world’s one billion cars to better use. The UK is our most-searched-for destination outside North America, and British guests in the US and Canada represent our largest portion of international travellers. This makes us confident that now is the right time to expand here.
‘While travellers in the UK have long been able to access Turo for their trips, we’re delighted to now be able to empower car owners in the country to share their cars and change the economics of owning their vehicles. With this announcement we invite you join Turo in celebrating the rich automotive heritage of the country that gave us the Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, and Jaguar.”
