Why did the Volkswagen Polo become popular in car sharing?
Who and how chooses cars for car sharing? Why did the Volkswagen Polo gain widespread popularity in this market segment? How does Major Auto holding win 70% of sales in the segment? These and other questions are answered by Liliya Levanovna Galustyan, head of the corporate department of the holding company Major Auto.K: Tell me, what is the place of Major Auto in the number of companies supplying cars for car sharing?
LL: At the present time, we occupy about 70% of the market for car sharing vehicles. Why? Because we supply cars for 7 of the 17 companies currently existing in the car sharing market.
K: And how is the choice of supplied models? They are offered by your company, or car sharing companies say they want this or that model?
LL: In different ways. The popularity of a particular model is determined by three factors. First is the price. Secondly, it is fashion. Well, and thirdly, it is the cost of maintenance.
K: And which models make up the bulk of deliveries to car sharing companies?
LL: Naturally, the main volume is made up of economy-class cars, and today the leading position is occupied by the excellent German Volkswagen Polo. First of all, this is determined by the fact that the cost of owning this car can be called very pleasant. Plus, a low initial cost, so that the total cost per kilometer is low. The car is well managed, it consumes little fuel and generally drives well – in short, its technical characteristics are at altitude. Plus, he has a good residual value and price in the secondary market. An important factor is the fact that this car is made in Russia, which means that cars can be shipped quickly and in any necessary quantity.
K: And why, in your opinion, is Volkswagen Polo in the first place, and not Skoda Rapid? They after all, consider, cousins and differ a little on the general level of comfort and technical characteristics?
LL: Skoda Rapid turns out more expensive than the Volkswagen Polo in similar trim levels, and very noticeable.
K: And what other models order?
LL: Of course, Kia, Hyundai. When we talked about what affects the choice, we mentioned fashion. Take Hyundai. This brand is certainly present in the car sharing market, and the first companies used just Hyundai Solaris. This is the “Delimobil” format for today. There were a lot of them, but then Kia appeared – the blue ones were so beautiful. Everything is good, all the parameters are normal, but each company wants to come up with something that is “not like everyone else.” That’s where the Volkswagen Polo format went. It is important and the exterior design, and comfort in the cabin, and running parameters, but the most important thing is still the cost of ownership. In general, it is a good European car, but of Russian production.
K: Yes, in our fleet of cars, according to our observations, the Volkswagen Polo are the freshest. But not enough of them …
LL: Well, not a few of them at all, already 600 pieces.
K .: And what requirements do carsharing companies impose to the complete sets? Do they take any special cars?
LL: No, we supply standard cars in Trendline and Comfortline configurations. Standard versions, which have a radio, air conditioning and heating. It is clear that they prefer cars with an automatic transmission, in Moscow conditions it is difficult to drive mechanics.
K .: And if a car sharing company wants to install some specific software on the head media device, who is doing this – are you as an official dealer or the company itself?
LL: We install additional equipment, but with telemetry devices it happens differently, depending on whether the car-sharing company wants to reveal to us all the secrets of installing this equipment or not. It happens that only we are engaged in this, it happens that both we and the client. It happens that a client takes all this completely on himself – it all depends on his privacy policy. In this situation, we are always on the client’s side and are ready for his conditions. In any case, we have a solid staff that allows you to perform all the work on the installation and connection of telemetric equipment in any quantity. Every day we can do all the necessary work on 20 cars. But the final settings, of course, the car-sharing company as a client produces independently. The same applies to the preparation of cars for pasting. There are standard pastings developed according to the requirements of the Government of Moscow – it is within these requirements that we work. We have a huge staff – 50 people pastors. These works are made in our service centers.
K .: And how does the volume of deliveries for car sharing compare with the volumes of other corporate sales of the Major Auto holding?
LL: At present, delivery to car sharing companies makes up from 30 to 35% of the total corporate sales, depending on the month.
