Do Avis and Hertz have a reason to be concerned?
CNBC reported Monday that Jaguar Land Rover has launched its own tech startup company, InMotion, which may roll out its own hourly-rate rental car-sharing service in a matter of months.
"Nothing has been decided yet, but we are looking at car sharing and we are starting real-world testing next month," the automaker's spokesperson, Chas Hallett, told CNBC, adding that the public should expect InMotion's first services to impact in months.
The website added that the company already has 30 London-based employees ranging in expertise from app developers to startup experts. The company's apps and on-demand services are expected to impact North America, Asia and Europe when set up.
Monday's announcement comes just three days after BMW announced its own jump into car-sharing with the launch of its own ReachNow program, aiming to put customers behind the wheel of a BMW 3 Series, electric i3 or Mini Cooper whenever they want as part of its 370-vehicle fleet.
BMW chose Seattle as the location to launch the program after witnessing Car2Go's car-sharing success in the city, already counting 75,000 registered members using its two-door smart cars. BMW has vowed to tack on three more cities for ReachNow before the end of this year, before ultimately serving 10 North American cities.
Perhaps Jaguar Land Rover heard this and didn't want to BMW to hog the luxury car-sharing market.
Although details are still pretty vague, analysts think it could work.
"A part of it may be that Jaguar may be looking to reach people who might not necessarily be able to afford one of the vehicles to own, but might be able to afford the vehicle for a short time, for a short trip," Mike Andronico, Tom's Guide associate editor, said during an appearance on CNBC. "It really comes down to what the pricing is for this type of service and what shape it kind of takes — if it's something very similar to ZipCar or if it's quite different."
BMW's ReachNow has already laid down the gauntlet against the competition, announcing the matching of Car2Go's rate of 41 cents per minute, but waiving its $39 registration fee to spark initial growth. Let's see if Jaguar Land Rover's InMotion does the same with Hertz and Avis, which owns ZipCar, in its promotional crosshairs.
