Easy Driving, which offers electric shared cars, will stop as of next month. According to the owner, the company is struggling with too much debt and too little perspective.
Easy Driving started in 2015 as an initiative of a number of entrepreneurs in the municipality of Leek to share a car. This grew into a small company that offered electric shared cars at various locations in the Northern Netherlands. This was done, among other things, via a specially developed app. In 2019, Easy Driving had 35 cars on the road. There are now only about 150 users.
The corona period came to a halt, says Harm Nienhuis of Easy Driving. In addition, he had to deal with rising costs. Some customers didn’t pay their bill either, causing him to miss out on even more money. Attempts to get those bills paid often failed. In addition, the company ran into competition in various regions from small companies that were set up with the support of the municipality. “Instead of helping us, we were thwarted.”
Submerged
“The fact that it turned out this way is mainly due to the corona period. We went under. We received support, but had to pay it back because we did not comply with the rules. And less use is being made of the electric shared cars than we had hoped. It was quite disappointing in terms of exploitation,” says Nienhuis. “It’s a pity that it turned out this way. But there is now no car sharing organization that writes black figures, it is a very difficult market. There are also very few people who dare to stick their neck out for this.”