As subscription and rental car services grow more prominent in the industry, Audi is taking steps to expand the reach of its own car-rental service. Silvercar, the Audi-only car rental service acquired by Audi in 2017, is planning to open in five new locations.
Chris Donus, the president and chief operating officer of Silvercar, told Business Insider that the company plans to open in five new locations in the first half of 2018 and eventually move to more of a subscription-based model.
Silvercar — which was previously a Texas-based operation — opened a new location in Salt Lake City today and plans to open in other areas such as San Diego and Washington, D.C. The company has not yet announced the other two locations.
Opening in new territories was one of the top requests that Silvercar received from users.
“The bulk of our people are not renting us in one location and one location only. They are renting in multiple locations and spreading out across the country,” Donus told Business Insider. “How can we take up more and more of their transportation usage and be a more consistent provider to them?”
Donus also hinted that the service is moving in the direction of becoming a subscription program because consumers want flexibility “without having to have the one-to-one ownership of owning a depreciating asset.” Parent company Volkswagen Group launched a luxury subscription service called Porche Passport last year.
Th Silvercare expansion is only one of the ways in which Silvercar is branching out in order to “make themselves stickier” in the competitive market and to give customers more flexibility. Previously, the service only offered Audi A4 sedans. Silvercar has now added Audi’s Q5 SUV to the lineup, after listening to user requests.
According to Donus, Silvercar has no plans to add other brands to its rental offerings.