Zipcar Incorporated: Do We Really Need to Own Our Automobiles?

Abstract

"Wheels when you want them." That was the advertising slogan of Zipcar, an automated car-rental service, founded in 1999. The idea came up during a conversation between two mothers watching their children frolic in a playground in front of a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Later, discussions about business strategies continued in a local bistro.² German-born Antje Danielson told her friend, Robin Chase, about a company in Berlin that rented cars by the hour. Chase, with an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, was excited about the opportunity to "transform urban transportation."³ The pair proposed a company that would lease and maintain a fleet of cars, parked near mass transit stops, throughout the Boston area. A client would pay an annual membership fee, reserve a vehicle on the Internet, and rent it on an hourly basis. He or she would be able walk to a convenient location and unlock the door to the car with a digital key. As a courtesy to the next member, the client would return the car, cleaned and fueled with gasoline