Another luxury vehicle brand has entered into the mobility space, and this time it’s Bentley.
The new service began operating in Los Angeles on May 25, and will begin operating in New York City and Dallas during the summer. All three cities are in “testing” phases, Jeff Kuhlman, Bentley’s chief communications officer for the Americas, told Auto Finance News.
It is uncertain, at this time, what the goals for the pilot program are, including whether Bentley is testing a subscription service similar to Book by Cadillac. “It would be difficult to make operational comparisons to the Cadillac or any other program based solely on limited contacts, to date,” Kuhlman said.
As the mobility space continues to evolve, OEMs and luxury car brands, in particular, have been experimenting with subscription models in a bid to encourage brand loyalty. For example, Book by Cadillac, which launched January 2017, allows members to trade in and out of models up to 18 times a year, and new luxury brand Lynk & Co. plans to offer its first car as a pay-as-you-go subscription model soon.
Matt Traylen, head of financial services and ownership models of Faraday Future, is also mulling ideas for a subscription model for the company’s planned 2018 launch into the luxury EV market, he said at Auto Finance Innovation 2017 last month. It’s important to identify “key components” that will keep a person loyal to a brand and not “swapping out every two to three months,” Traylen said.
Perhaps it is those key components that Bentley is trying to figure out.
