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Industry | Carsharing |
---|---|
Founded | 1995 [1] |
Founder | Gijs van Lookeren Campagne[2] and Jan Borghuis[3] |
Headquarters | Rotterdam, Netherlands[1] |
Area served | Germany (40+), Netherlands (130+) |
Key people | Phillip Gronstedt - director, Andrew Berkhout - director [4] |
Services | Carsharing |
Revenue | 13 millions € (2015)[5] |
Number of employees | >50 |
Divisions | Greenwheels Germany |
Website | www |
Greenwheels is the largest carsharing corporation in the Netherlands and also operates in Germany. Operations in the United Kingdom ceased on 1 March 2013.[6]
Founded as Collect Car B.V. on 21 June 1995 by Gijs van Lookeren Campagne and Jan Borghuis, who were inspired by car sharing by German students in the 1980s.[7] Now the biggest and most successful carsharing company of the Netherlands, Collect Car B.V., Rotterdam, - better known by its trademark 'Greenwheels' - bought the majority of the shares of StattAuto, a German carsharing company (founded in 1994 as StattAuto Hamburger CarSharing GmbH) in 2004. The car sharing firm received a financial boost by Dutch entrepreneur Eckart Wintzen[8] in 1997. By the end of 2005, Greenwheels owned 98.5% of StattAuto shares. Greenwheels also operated in London as Greenwheels UK until 1 March 2013.[6] In April 2013 it was announced that a consortium consisting of the Volkswagen Financial Services AG ( 60% ) and the Dutch VW importer Pon Holdings B.V. ( 40% ) acquired an unspecified amount of shares in CollectCar B.V.[9]
Early 2016, the CarSharing company Quicar in Hannover was acquired by Volkswagen Leasing GmbH. Greenwheels will continue 60 Quicar stations from 1 April 2016 and occupy a total of 80 vehicles of the types VW up !, VW Golf Variant 5th generation and VW Caddy .[5]
Locations
Greenwheels has extensive locations in mostly urban centres in Germany and Netherlands. In the UK, operations were only in the boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth, and closed on 1 March 2013 because Greenwheels UK "did not have enough members to continue our services".[6]
Fleet
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Greenwheels_Hengelo.jpg/220px-Greenwheels_Hengelo.jpg)
Greenwheels fleet consists of subcompact (supermini or city car) or compact (compact MPV, leisure vehicles) that are better able to handle the narrow and congested streets found in European cities.[7][10]
In the Netherlands Greenwheels operates with mostly Volkswagen vehicles, VW up!, Variant and Caddy's:[11][12]
In Germany Greenwheels uses Volkswagen vehicles:[13]
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Greenwheels_de.jpg/220px-Greenwheels_de.jpg)
- VW up!
- VW Golf Variant 5th generation
- VW Caddy
References
- ^ a b "Collect Car B.V.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013.
- ^ "Dutch railways reinforce car-sharing project cooperation (The Netherlands)". Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
- ^ http://www.worldtalkradio.com/worldtalkradio/vguest.aspx?gid=11056[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Impressum". greenwheels.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019.
- ^ a b Volkswagen Quicar - Neues Konzept für Carsharing, 15. Januar 2016
- ^ a b c "Greenwheels end all activities in UK". 1 March 2013. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
- ^ a b "Home | NL Platform". www.nlplatform.com.
- ^ "Article Categories - Mixonline". mixonline.com. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
- ^ Autoflotte online: VW Financial Services steigt bei "Greenwheels" ein, 26 April 2013.
- ^ https://www.greenwheels.com/uk/Home/Private/step-inside/benefits [permanent dead link]
- ^ https://www.greenwheels.com/uk/Home/Private/step-inside/our-cars [permanent dead link]
- ^ "Onze auto's". greenwheels.com.
- ^ "Unsere Fahrzeuge". greenwheels.com.