Volvo Creating Carsharing Business Unit

The Swedish auto manufacturer Volvo has announced that it will be creating a new business division based around its carsharing work.

While this will technically be a new enterprise, Volvo has actually been running a carsharing service known as Sunfleet for nearly 20 years now (since 1998), so the company won’t be entering the field unexperienced by any means.

The new business division will unsurprisingly be based directly on Sunfleet, with the plan being to expand internationally (currently, Sunfleet only operates in Sweden — in 50 cities there).

The service is reportedly pretty popular in Sweden, it should be noted, with more than 50,000 subscribers in those 50 cities — all utilizing a fleet of 1,200 Volvos.

Tech Crunch provides more:

“Sunfleet is a station-based car sharing system akin to ZipCar rather than a free-floating service like car2go. Users register on the website, book a car, unlock it with an app, and find a key in the glove box to start the car. …

“As it stands now, users can rent a car once, sign up for a monthly subscription, or take a car for the weekend, from Friday at 5 pm to Monday at 8 am. Because Sunfleet is station-based, you pick up the car where it’s parked and return it there when you’ve finished your short-term rental.”

That’s more or less all that we know as of right now. Though, the company will be announcing further details about the new division over the coming months, going on recent public statement.

Images via Sunfleet