The dream of the own car is giving ground between the Argentineans. Not only because young people no longer perceive it as a necessity (they prefer to maintain their lifestyle before a vehicle), but also because the crisis is driving away the purchase of a 0Km from the list of priorities.
In effect, the patents fell almost 55% year-on-year in March, last month relieved by the Association of Automotive Dealers of the Argentine Republic (ACARA). The entity adds an even more worrying figure for the sector: it was the worst first quarter since 2006.
According to an investigation by the UNDAV, an individual who uses his car to travel to work from the Province of Buenos Aires to the Federal Capital, traveling 30 kilometers one way and another 30 kilometers for 22 working days per month, paying tolls in peak hours and garage, spend:
- About 35,000 pesos if you own a high-end car
- About 24,000 pesos if it is mid-range
- About 20,000 pesos if it is low-end
From the UNDAV add another key fact: today must allocate 20% more than three years ago to maintain a vehicle. These figures are leaving in evidence why the own automotive companies are the ones that bet on alternative systems of transfer. And, very particularly, to car sharing (carsharing).
Through this mechanism, a person can already rent it easily from the cell phone and use it for a certain period of time, paying only for it. Although it is a common practice in other countries, in Argentina it began to "take shape" with the services of two Japanese giants: Toyota and Nissan.
Toyota launched Mobility Service in late 2018, and it was fully operational in January. It is a platform for mobility services that makes it possible to use it for as long as the person wishes: it is removed from a dealer and can be returned at any other official point of sale.
From the company they avoid referring to associate this system with that of a rent a car, by ensuring that it provides a wide range of models and, even, custom options, such as a pick up with crane included for heavy work.
Then it was Nissan's turn. In partnership with Awto (software developers in Chile), it presented a similar platform. The units are available on the parking lots of shopping malls and supermarkets and are contracted simply by accessing through an app that is downloaded to the cell phone.
These two firms did nothing but strengthen the first bet that was already in the market and had not achieved so much exposure: MyKeego.com, created by the brothers Rodrigo and Gerónimo Pérez Terra at the beginning of 2018, which offers the shared car service through the mobile phone.
With these three active models, and with an implementation that accumulates three months, the evolution of the service presents concrete numbers:
- A year ago, according to Pérez Terra, 90% of drivers did not even know the word carsharing. Nor was he interested in discovering the benefits of sharing a car
- Today, with the three companies underway, there are already almost 20,000 Argentines in the country who downloaded the app: 10,500 from MyKeego; 5,000 from Nissan and 4,500 from Toyota
- MyKeego: has 1,500 active users and 65% recidivism. That is, more than half of the people used the platform at least once
- Toyota: with just three months, 750 drivers have used or use the service
- In the case of Nissan, they hope to close the first month to share the figures
In all cases, the plans of the brands point in the same direction: expand the fleet of vehicles to provide greater availability and plan to expand into the interior of the country.
New uses and custom
There are several causes that combine so that companies no longer think only of selling cars. One of them is that the investigations show that a large part of society is increasingly focused on the costs of maintaining a vehicle that, in many cases, usually stays whole days parked in the garage.
"It is estimated that a private car is used only 4% of the time, that is, an average of one hour per day," affirms iProUP Mariano Segarra, general manager of Awto Argentina.
He adds: "If everyone joins carsharing, great improvements in traffic would be achieved, since for each shared vehicle there are 14 fewer on the street," says Segarra.
Companies also know that buying a 0km is not as high priority for young people as it was decades ago. In this sense, the loss of value affects time: most of the models are quoted at half price in just three or four years.
In other words, it is far from being an investment and, in addition, it is a quite high expense. "Millennials prefer to invest their money in travel and use a car only when they need it," they say from each of these companies.
Another key factor is the positioning: although there are still no results in terms of profitability, for the automotive industry it is a big bet for the future that leaves for granted the brand image they want to impose and their commitment to a more sustainable world with fewer vehicles to combustion in the street.
As a sample of these challenges, each of the companies includes this system in much more comprehensive proposals.
In the case of Nissan, this service is one of the pillars of its global strategy whose name is "Intelligent Mobility", oriented to the new forms of displacement that are breaking out and that range from the way to move to the disruptive technologies that are going incorporating the cars.
"Although in Argentina it is all very incipient, globally there is a clear trend in which the idea of ââproviding a service is gaining importance." Mobility proposals will be through integrated transport systems, where they are used from bicycles even electric skateboards and cars, all on the same platform, "says Gonzalo Ibarzábal, president of Nissan Argentina, to iProUP.
The executive adds: "Our company launched this strategy together with Awto because what we try to do is learn about the new habits of consumers, what future things will mark the agenda of the industry, and make an alliance with those who already have experience and it gives us value. "
In the case of Toyota, Daniel Herrero, number one of the automaker in the country, insists on pointing out: "We want to stop being a manufacturer of 0km to become a service company".
From Awto they are enthusiastic about the advance in Argentina. Segarra points out that "the shared vehicles will be more and more protagonists since the sense of belonging will become less relevant".
Other evaluations
In addition to analyzing consumer demand and positioning, another piece of information contemplated by companies is the size of the market and the potential in terms of people with a driver's license.
Precisely, Awto evaluated three key aspects before launching its service in the country:
- 1. Growth potential: cities with more than one million inhabitants, and a certain socio-economic level, are already prepared to receive carsharing
- 2. Difficulty getting to your own car: today there are 1.6 million cars circulating per day in the Federal Capital and there are 1.9 million valid driver's licenses. That is to say, there are thousands of porteños authorized to drive but who lack a vehicle of their own.
- 3. Little use, high maintenance costs: in Buenos Aires, expenses have been growing above inflation. In addition, many Argentines use it only 1 or 2 days a week and a few hours.
Given these characteristics of the Argentine market, the companies do not doubt that the modality will go in frank promotion.
"Carsharing is going to explode, more and more people are interested in this modality, especially young people and millennials, for whom the car itself is far from its priorities", anticipates Pérez Terra.
In addition, the manager of MyKeego ensures that everything is a matter of education: that people understand the operation and see the differences with a car rental.
"In our case, we created the platform after dedicating ourselves to the rental service and analyzing the faults that we had, we noticed a lot of lack of transparency and that bothers the user, which is why, for example, we do not include naphtha in the daily cost. car is given with a certain amount of liters and if the return has less, you are charged what is missing according to the price of the pump, there are no secrets, "he explains.
Trends in the world
In addition to studying the local market, automakers are inspired by the popularity that the car sharing system is registering in other markets.
In this sense, Spain is one of the most successful and according to a recent study, three out of four people are willing to share ownership, with young people showing greater enthusiasm with this option.
"The form of mobility is changing a lot and will change even more in the coming years, in this framework, carsharing adds more and more followers," they say from Volkswagen.
They point out that "maintenance costs tighten more and more and the option that grows is to divide that property". And they provide a revealing data: 75% of people are inclined to share ownership, in line with the global trend to pay only the time of use.
Other interesting figures of the report:
- 82% of respondents aged between 18 and 24 prefer not to spend on maintenance
- 65% of people between 35 and 44 years old are in favor of this form of shared ownership.
- Six out of 10 prefer to spread the expenses only with one person
Companies do calculations to determine when carsharing will approach its peak of popularity in the country.
"It's the same as with the automatic boxes, the first demands came from people who used them on their trips abroad, but now they're all getting used to them and asking for them more and more," says one businessman.
On the other hand, this modality begins to occur at the same moment that the automakers have begun to bet on electric cars, which is not a minor fact, since it has to do with a total change of the business and with a prioritization of the new mobility models for the future.
