Aside from traditional car ownership, Porsche plans to widen its experimentation and scope by adding pilot programs on Atlanta and San Francisco to attract Young Americans and millennials in availing their luxury car-sharing.
The Rental Program
Porsche unveils the plan to offer daily or weekly rentals for its famous sports cars for Atlanta drivers. Not only that, but they also plan to offer a car-sharing program for Los Angeles and San Francisco drivers by partnering with the startup company Turo.
This enables the luxury car company to compete with the famous Uber-sharing platform. Named Porsche Drive, the project will have a subscription program on Atlanta drivers and lets the consumers rent their luxurious cars for hours, depending on their membership level.
According to Porsche, a customer can already spend four hours of driving in a 718 Cayman, Macan, Or Boxster for only $269! Have more money left in your pocket? For only $2,909, you can become the owner of a popular 911 Porsche car for a week!
The concierge service is already included in the rate according to Porsche. The company hopes to attract more millennials and even the Generation Z drivers in availing not only of their cars but also of their services as they compete with the transient economy built by Airbnb, Lyft, and Uber.
The Thrill of Driving
According to the head of Porsche Cars North America Klaus Zellmer, the said initiative was done to offer their customers more options and flexibility in driving a Porsche. They want them to experience the thrill of driving Porsche and fulfill their dream of driving a luxurious car. Aside from that, they want to offer their customers easy access to their luxurious cars aside from automobile ownership.
Through its partnership with Turo, Zellmer says the Porsche owners living in the West Coast who already used the peer-to-peer sharing platform will have the opportunity to visit the company’s test track in Los Angeles. The drivers can also learn the finer points of driving luxurious cars. According to Zellmer, all of this wouldn’t have been possible without Turo.
The Partnership
Before Turo’s partnership with Porsche, the thriving startup company already has over 288,000 car listings and almost 8 million members worldwide. The company already operates in over 56 countries, and every state in the United States except in New York.
According to the startup company, Porsche hails as the fourth-most searched brand on their website for the past three years, falling behind BMW, Tesla and Mercedes Benz. Despite this, Turo believes their partnership with Porsche will be effective in attracting Millennials to avail of their car-sharing and rental services. Most of the site’s users are car enthusiasts who use their service to test drive the luxurious cars before deciding to make their purchase. Their platform also lets their customers rent out their cars for a few days every month.
According to Turo spokesman Steve Webb, most car manufacturers scrutinized their platform when they first launched the platform, thinking it could erode their sales. However, Webb reiterates how their platform helps customers in making the right decision before making a car purchase thanks to their fractional ownership model.
This effective business marketing strategy clicked to the market, causing the company to have a surge of membership as well as the emergence of fractional ownership. Webb also believes this new partnership with Porsche gives both companies the opportunity to promote Porsche cars more and boost the rental and car ownership.
