imove goes international after success in Norway - launches Sweden's first car subscription for electric cars
The launch of imove Sweden marks the first step in imove's international expansion and also means that Sweden will have its first EV car subscription service.
On February 17th, imove launched the first car subscription service in Sweden. imove believes that fully electric vehicles offered on subscription with no commitment or start-up fee, will help accelerate EV adoption in Sweden. The subscription service will initially launch in Stockholm and Uppsala and aim to have 700 cars in the service by the end of 2021.
To lead the expansion to Sweden, imove has brought on board the mobility entrepreneur Magnus Engervall. In 2011 Engervall started Sweden's first car sharing service (now snappcar.se). For the past three years he has been Innovation Lead for Skoda Auto Digilab in Prague, Czech Republic.
"Just as Spotify and Netflix revolutionized the music and film industries, car subscriptions will revolutionize the automotive industry. The car subscription's flexibility and simplicity will in the coming years challenge private ownership of the car” Magnus Engervall, Country Manager at imove Sweden
International Expansion
Car subscriptions as a service are experiencing rapidly increasing popularity internationally and reputable consulting firms such as McKinsey and Accenture estimate that car subscriptions will account for 20-25% of all new car sales already in 2025. Having experienced a warm welcome in Norway, it is now natural to expand the service to new European markets - where Sweden is chosen to be the first country. Recently, imove has been evaluating the product market fit of a number of countries in Europe, and is now working on maturing the concept and value propositions for selected countries and markets.
"We are very happy to finally launch imove in Sweden. This marks the start of imove's international expansion. We see a rapidly increasing demand for car subscriptions throughout Europe and hope to see lots of imove cars on european roads in near future" Hans Kristian Aas, CEO of imove
Year of success in imove
Since the launch in Norway in 2018, imove became an immediate success. The home market fleet currently consists of more than 800 fully electric vehicles, ranging from Volkswagen e-up and BMW i3 to larger cars such as Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2. Electric car subscriptions are now offered in the largest cities in Norway; Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim.
“The car industry is now undergoing a total structural change - in record time, where customers are offered convenient access to a car without any obligations. It is admirable that the trends we predicted in 2018 are now being materialized into actual products and services in the mobility industry. The adoption of more environmentally friendly cars, new ownership and distribution models, sharing economy and technology development are among the trends that affect the future of the car” Gunnar Birkenfeldt, co-founder of imove
About imove
The Bergen-based start-up company has since the autumn of 2018 launched services for car subscriptions and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). imove offers customers freedom, predictability and flexibility through subscriptions on electric cars. The customer can at any time pause the subscription, change car or end the subscription. imove's technical platform is also used by several large customers, including the car manufacturers Toyota and Lexus. imove was started as an innovation project between NEW (https://new.no) and Frydenbø (https://frydenbo.no), to meet the changes in the car industry. Hans Kristian Aas and Gunnar Birkenfeldt are the co-founders who have developed the company from the start.
“We have worked methodically to plan the international expansion of imove - from analysis and qualification of potential markets to adapting the value proposition to local conditions. imove's framework is internally referred to as ‘Country-jumping methodology’. It is reassuring to see that our Car Subscription Univers from Norway, pretty easily can be exported to new countries and markets using this self-made methodology. We are convinced that we are well equipped to succeed with imove within our next focus markets” Jennifer Foldnes Einarsen, Head of International Expansion at imove
Visit the imove AB service in Sweden: https://www.imove.se
Documents:
Pressrelease in English: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NN7JOlHgj6hbroff2YYdBk4HOSWPK8Zq/view?usp=sharing
Documents and high-res photos https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GbKmaVfA66nMxP81LxuVJgiP5LmRK_Z_?usp=sharing
Media contacts
Hans Kristian Aas
+47 920 56 108
Gunnar Birkenfeldt
+47 47000072
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