SAN DIEGO – As subscription services struggle to gain traction, the single-model subscription platform and single-VIN subscription platform have the best chances of garnering consumer adoption, said Brian Allan, senior vice president of strategic partnerships at HyreCar, at the Auto Finance Sales & Marketing in San Diego.
The single-model subscription platform allows customers to upgrade their vehicles as they see fit when new technology is released, similar to phone companies allowing consumers to upgrade their phones when new models are unveiled.
“Most people don’t want to change cars every month or twice a month or year,” Allan explained. Yet, some consumers want to be able to trade in a vehicle for a newer model.
Similarly, a single-VIN subscription model allows consumers to put a small amount of money down, $1,000 for example, drive the car for as long as they like, then trade it in for a completely different vehicle.
In fact, Fair, the vehicle-subscriptions startup that dialed back its operations in an effort to become profitable, is said to be reevaluating its business model to align more with leisure subscriptions such as the single-VIN model, Allan said.
“Fair is going to come back in a big way; they’re leveraging the dealer infrastructure,” Allan said. “You’re going to see some pretty big announcements on the leisure side of subscription.
“Its similar to what HyreCar does, except we focus on ridesharing drivers. Fair is no longer going to focus on that market, because it was taking a lot of capital from them.
Fair, which raised more than $1 billion in venture capital, was forced by its lead investor, SoftBank, to cut more than 40% of its staff last October.
