Bid your price: ATOM Mobility launches rider-controlled pricing feature

In 2024, the global car-sharing market was valued at approximately €8.9 billion, with Europe accounting for over 50.2% of that total. Analysts forecast it will grow at a CAGR of 11.8% between 2025 and 2033, reaching roughly €24.4 billion by 2033. This blend of urbanization, environmental regulation and a growing preference for flexible mobility continues to create fertile ground for operators - yet not every service finds a clear path to profitability.

Success hinges on your location, business model, fleet, operations and local market dynamics. There are strong success stories, but also many high-profile failures. Here’s a closer look at what really affects profitability in today’s car-sharing market - and what you can learn from real-world cases.

What makes a car-sharing business profitable?

Profitability in car sharing boils down to securing enough paid usage while keeping costs under control. Every unused hour or unnecessary expense erodes margins.

Key factors:

• Fleet utilization – the most important metric. Cars need to be in use several hours each day to cover fixed costs.
• Operational efficiency – cleaning, charging, relocation, maintenance and insurance add up quickly.
• Fleet acquisition – leasing usually optimizes cash flow and scalability, but still carries fixed monthly expenses.
• Pricing and competition – too low cuts margins; too high drives away users. Finding the right balance is essential.
• Tech stack – a robust platform automates operations, improves customer experience and reduces support costs.

The operators who win are those who combine solid daily usage with lean operations.

❌ PANEK S.A. suspends its car-sharing service to focus on rental

29 March 2025 marked the end of Panek’s car-sharing experiment. Despite peaking at 2 700–3 000 vehicles, Panek never turned a profit in over seven years.

About Panek

• Launch: Car sharing added in 2017 by Maciej Panek, entirely internally funded (no VC)
• Fleet mix: City cars, hybrids, EVs, cargo vans and vintage models
• 2023 acquisition: Regional Rent (+ 45% fleet), making Panek Poland’s largest integrated rental/operator

2024 performance

• Revenue split: Car sharing ≈ 20 % of total. Traditional rental 80 %
• Utilization: 0.7–1.0 rides/car/day
• Maintenance & overhead: Up to €690/car-month
• Profitability: Negative since inception

Why it failed

1. Under-utilization: < 1 ride/day vs. ~ 2-4 rides/day needed to cover fixed costs
2. Price wars: Fierce competition in Warsaw eroded margins and drove up customer-acquisition costs
3. High OPEX: Parking, maintenance, insurance and vandalism pushed costs > €690 per car each month
4. Tech drag: Two-year outsourced app development cycle meant poor UX and slow feature delivery
5. No public support: Missed out on parking incentives or EV subsidies

Faced with persistent losses, Panek’s leadership refocused on profitable core segments: daily/weekly rentals, corporate leasing and Fleet-as-a-Service.

🚗 WiBLE Spain finds its profitable lane in Madrid

WiBLE (50/50 joint venture between Kia Europe and Repsol) launched in 2018 and has just closed its second consecutive year with positive EBITDA.

• Fleet: 600+ plug-in hybrids (Kia Niro, XCeed, Ceed Tourer)
• 2024 revenue: €6.93 million (+ 5% vs. 2023)
• Usage: ~1 500 trips/day ⇒ 2.5 rides/car/day
• ‍Diversification: Monthly rentals (€599+) now 5% of revenue‍
• Market share: ~19% of Madrid’s car-sharing market

Key enablers:

1. Higher utilization – rides up 15% YoY, driving a 10% lift in core revenue
2. Fleet scale efficiencies – added 150 vehicles in 2 years, lowering per-unit costs
3. Service diversification – multi-day and monthly rental options opened new revenue streams

After five years of absorbing fixed-cost drag and depreciation, WiBLE now leverages Madrid’s regulatory environment (low-emission zones, parking benefits) and delivers lean, tech-driven operations.

🚗 SOCAR South Korea: scale + longer rentals

SOCAR (backed by SoftBank, SK Inc. and Lotte Group) operates 20 000 vehicles, generates nearly €300 million in annual turnover and has 20% of South Koreans signed up.

• Model: Station-based, pay-per-minute with average rental duration of a whoping 12 hrs
• Segmentation trick: Aging cars shift from on-demand sharing to long-term monthly rentals (10% of revenue), extending resale life with minimal depreciation impact

By pairing massive scale with savvy car lifecycle management, extra-long rental duration, SOCAR converts high utilization into robust profitability.

🚗 Carguru (Latvia)

30 August 2024: Carguru (est. 2017) acquired EV-focused OX Drive (est. 2021), adding 200+ Tesla to the fleet.

• Growth: From just 30 cars and total budget below 500 000 EUR (2017) to over 1 000 cars (mid-2025) via leasing and strategic partnerships
• 2023 turnover: €4 million; 435 000 trips (+35.9 %); 7 million km driven; profit €375 600

Outcome: A combined ICE, hybrid and EV fleet—backed by local expertise and strategic acquisitions - has driven strong growth and high utilization.

🎯 Core suggestions for aspiring operators

1. Target 2–4 rides/day per vehicle
   • Leverage dynamic/off-peak pricing, B2B partnerships (hotels, offices) and event tie-ins.
2. Contain OPEX via automation
   • Use predictive maintenance, remote diagnostics and gig-economy cleaning/relocation.
3. Secure municipal support early
   • Negotiate parking incentives, EV charging access and low-emission zone permits.
4. Choose your tech wisely
   • Build an in-house development team for full control with higher costs, or adopt a proven white-label platform for speed to market, stability and lower costs.
5. Validate unit economics before scaling
   • Prove break-even utilization in one zone before expanding to others.

With clear benchmarks and smart execution - drawing on lessons from Panek, WiBLE, SOCAR and Carguru - car sharing can still be a highly profitable component of a modern mobility portfolio.

If you’re planning to start or improve your service, ATOM Mobility is ready to help. We’ve built the platform and supported dozens of teams worldwide - reach out, and we’ll share what we’ve learned.

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Image credit: https://kursors.lv/2018/03/13/carguru-palielina-autoparku-un-paplasina-darbibas-zonas-mikrorajonos

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the ATOM Mobility OpenAPI v1 - a major step toward enabling mobility operators to seamlessly integrate their services with third-party platforms, partner systems, and custom applications.

With the OpenAPI, ATOM Mobility opens up new possibilities for businesses running vehicle-sharing, rental, and ride-hailing services to extend their digital reach, enhance customer experience, and unlock new revenue streams.

What is an OpenAPI and why does it matter?

An OpenAPI (or application programming interface) is a set of standardized protocols that allows external software systems to interact with your platform. In simple terms, it acts like a bridge between your mobility service and the outside world — enabling secure data sharing and functional integration.

For mobility businesses, OpenAPIs have become a key tool for:

• Displaying fleet availability in Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platforms
• Enabling ride or rental bookings directly from external platforms (websites, apps, kiosks)
• Automating back-office workflows and data pipelines
• Enhancing customer service tools with real-time ride information

What makes ATOM Mobility’s OpenAPI different?

While many mobility providers offer GBFS (General Bikeshare Feed Specification) to share read-only data (ATOM Mobility will continue supporting GBFS) - such as vehicle locations and availability - these feeds are typically limited to visibility. Users still need to switch to a provider's app to complete the ride.

ATOM Mobility’s OpenAPI is different. It offers full read-write access to the core functions of your platform - similar to what operators can already do in the back-office dashboard. This means that third-party apps can not only display your vehicles but also handle booking, payments, and ride management entirely within their own interface.

This is a game-changer for expanding your service footprint beyond your app.

What’s included in OpenAPI v1?

The first version of the OpenAPI supports all core modules — Vehicle sharing, Digital rental, and Ride-Hailing — with both public and private endpoints for:

• User registration and authentication
• Vehicle discovery and availability
• Zone rules, pricing, and ride logic
• Starting and ending rides or bookings
• Accessing ride history and user activity
• Enhanced actions: skip wallet checks, trigger some commands, bypass OTP, and more

Typical use cases

Here are some examples of how mobility operators are already planning to use the ATOM OpenAPI:

1. Deep MaaS platform integrations

Connect your fleet to fast-growing MaaS platforms, for example:

• umob - a Dutch mobility booking app that recently raised €3.5M to expand its "all-in-one" MaaS experience across Europe. With OpenAPI, your vehicles could be fully bookable and payable directly from their interface.
• Moovit – a mobility super-app used by over 1.7 billion riders in 3,500+ cities. Traditionally, Moovit displays vehicles using GBFS and redirects users to provider apps - with OpenAPI, the entire booking could happen inside Moovit.
• Jelbi (Berlin) - Germany’s flagship MaaS platform, integrating 12+ operators, including car-sharing, scooters, and public transport. A direct API integration offers visibility and usage on one of Europe’s most advanced multimodal networks.

2. Bookings via your website

Allow users to book rentals or ride directly from your website without needing to download an app upfront. This is especially useful for tourists, first-time users or hotels. The app would only be needed to unlock the vehicle or track the driver (in case of ride-hailing).

3. B2B partner integrations

Want to offer mobility through hotels, offices, or real estate platforms? Now they can show your vehicles and complete bookings within their apps - driving high-value B2B usage without manual overhead.

4. Customer support automation

Support agents can pull up a rider’s active trip data in external helpdesk tools using ride ID endpoints - improving efficiency and resolution speed.

5. Custom dashboards and analytics

Build your own reporting layer by pulling real-time and historical ride, user, and revenue data into tools like Power BI, Tableau, or custom CRMs.

How to enable the OpenAPI?

The OpenAPI is available to all ATOM clients on the Premium Plan, which includes:

• Access to full OpenAPI documentation and developer tools
• 100,000 API requests per month included in your support fee
• Technical assistance from the ATOM team for setup and testing

Ready to expand your mobility ecosystem?

Whether you’re exploring new channels, seeking B2B integrations, or joining a MaaS platform, the ATOM OpenAPI gives you the tools to scale faster and smarter. Want to learn more or schedule a call with our integrations team?
Contact us: https://www.atommobility.com/ask