Stepping in Car Rental for Travel, WM Motor Launches GETnGO in Hainan, China

January 19th 2019 / EqualOcean / - WM Motor (威马汽车)’s subsidiary brand GETnGO (即客行), launched its first-ever car rental for travel service in Sanya, China. Though GETnGO is a WM Motor brand, it is independently operating. GETnGO offers charging post service and car rental service which has two major lines including the general car rental and the travel-featured car rental. The car rental for travel is a new business category under car rental and Sanya is the first city in WM Motor’s car rental for travel blueprint.

In 2018, the implement of adjusted NEV (New Energy Vehicle) subsidy policies encouraged and guided the EV (Electrical Vehicle) industry to make improvements and progress in EV technologies. However, the changes in policy reduced the total amount of NEV subsidy with an estimate portion of 30%: zero subsidies for range-less-than-150km NEVs; 20%-50% drop for range-between-150km-and-300km NEVs; 2%-to-14%-subsidy-increase for range-above-300km NEVs. The concern regarding the 2019’s adjustment in NEV subsidy has been widely discussed recently and wondering if the subsidy would continue to drop, which will cast tremendous influence onto NEV manufacturers. The decreased subsidy will introduce lowered profits for manufacturers while NEV is still an emerging market at an early stage and heavily dependent on subsidy policies. The potentially lowered profits might be one of the reasons that WM Motor stepped in the car rental market.

Car rental service is a common choice for peopon in an official business trip or traveling. Under these scenarios, the range of car is usually limited within the city while returning car at a different car service center is usually not provided or will be charged at an expensive rate. The limited range of car’s activity provides a chance for NEV in commercial use since the most upset part for NEV might be the range per full-charge but is acceptable for car rental service. In China, the range per full-charge was averagely from 250 to 350 km (from 155 to 220 mile) in 2018.

The short range of NEVs make the public call NEV the “City Car” (城市代步车), which means that the car is not powered enough to go outside of the city. But for travelers and business flyers, “City Car” is just as equivalent as other internal combustion engine (ICE) car and even superior than ICE car since it is the icon of environment-friendly products – being naturally attractive as same as organic food. GETnGO, as a new invader in car rental industry, has a core competency since its rental cars are WM Motor manufactured, which stands for a new force in the automobile industry and a new eco-friendly lifestyle. The launch of GETnGO in Sanya is a nice try for WM Motor. Sanya is a tourist city in Hainan province in China, which is famous for its sea and beaches. Hainan is an island and road trip to Hainan is less convenient than to other provinces in China, and hence car rental need accordingly rises. Starting from a top tourist city, WM Motor can gain more chances to introduce its NEVs to tourists through providing car rental services and special service of free within-network charging.