What’s the difference between a car subscription and renting a car?

The car subscription model is in its infancy and entrepreneurs, vehicle manufacturers and consumers are just trying to get their head around what the future will look like. The reality is, no one really knows what consumers will embrace. 

As such, lots of different businesses are being launched that attempts to find out ‘will consumers shun car ownership and embrace the subscription of a car?’ But a valid question is; ‘What’s the difference between a car subscription and renting a car?’.

For many new subscription services being launched, very little. The ability to use a car for a short period of time has been available for over 100 years through rental companies. While most people use rental cars for holidays or to complete a specific job, there is no reason why rental car fleets can’t be used for those consumers wanting a bit of variety and also want to avoid commitment. The question should be, why haven’t they?

The downside of rental fleets and some new entrants to the subscription business, is that they often have dated cars with dated technology and with many kilometres of use. 

So, you would have to agree that some new car subscriptions sure do look a lot like renting a car. There is obviously a market for these types of businesses and some consumers will enjoy the ability to have an SUV one month and a convertible the other, but is this just an attempt to re-brand the established rental market?

The challenge will be to offer a car subscription that will give the consumer all the upside of car ownership; huge choice of makes, models, colours, features and accessories that suits their needs and lifestyle. While also eliminating the downsides of car ownership such as depreciation & commitment.