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Greenwheels

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Greenwheels is the largest carsharing corporation in the Netherlands and also operates in Germany. Operations in the United Kingdom ceased on 1 March 2013.[1]

Greenwheels
IndustryCarsharing
Founded1995 (1995)
[2]
FounderGijs van Lookeren Campagne[3] and Jan Borghuis[4]
HeadquartersRotterdam, Netherlands[2]
Area served
Germany (40+), Netherlands (130+)
Key people
Phillip Gronstedt - director, Andrew Berkhout - director [5]
ServicesCarsharing
Revenue13 millions € (2015)[6]
Number of employees
>50
DivisionsGreenwheels Germany
Websitewww.greenwheels.com

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.[1] 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 .[6]

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".[1]

Fleet

Greenwheels Peugeot 107 at Station Hengelo in the Netherlands

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]

Greenwheels VW up! in Germany

References

  1. ^ a b c "Greenwheels end all activities in UK". 1 March 2013. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Collect Car B.V.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com.
  3. ^ "Dutch railways reinforce car-sharing project cooperation (The Netherlands)". Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  4. ^ http://www.worldtalkradio.com/worldtalkradio/vguest.aspx?gid=11056[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ "Impressum". greenwheels.com. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019.
  6. ^ a b Volkswagen Quicar - Neues Konzept für Carsharing, 15. Januar 2016
  7. ^ a b "Home | NL Platform". www.nlplatform.com.
  8. ^ "Article Categories - Mixonline". mixonline.com.
  9. ^ Autoflotte online: VW Financial Services steigt bei "Greenwheels" ein, 26 April 2013.
  10. ^ https://www.greenwheels.com/uk/Home/Private/step-inside/benefits [permanent dead link]
  11. ^ https://www.greenwheels.com/uk/Home/Private/step-inside/our-cars [permanent dead link]
  12. ^ "Onze auto's". greenwheels.com.
  13. ^ "Unsere Fahrzeuge". greenwheels.com.
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