ekar, the Middle East’s first and largest personal mobility company, has activated car subscription within its ‘Self-drive Super App’ across Saudi Arabia in partnership with some of the largest car rental companies in the Kingdom. ekar’s subscription leasing is the perfect solution for customers wanting the convenience of having a personal car without the costly commitment of owning a car.
ekar demonstrated explosive growth in the UAE subscription leasing space and quickly became the market leader by car menu size and total rental counts since its launch in early 2021. ekar is now poised to bring its subscription leasing expertise to Saudi Arabia and target a $2.5 Billion USD car rental and leasing market, as anticipated for 2026 by Mordor Intelligence.
“ekar Saudi Arabia carsharing experienced a spike in demand for longer-term bookings during the pandemic, especially with female drivers who choose ekar as their ‘first car solution’. Launching subscription leasing is a perfect solution for our 100,000 users in the Kingdom. The marketplace is nascent in Saudi Arabia, and the combination of subscription leasing with carsharing will make ekar the only App in the market that offers the entire vertical of self-drive from per minute carsharing to multiple months subscriptions,” said Vilhelm Hedberg, founder of ekar.
“ekar is partnered with some of the world’s largest car rental companies and connects fleets to renters. Our integration with CarPro, the world’s largest ERP software in the car rental industry, allows ekar to ensure that the availability of any car is only a click away, avoiding painful declines due to car shortages in the rental car space. In a world with car shortages, optimizing fleets is the key to success, and ekar Mobility OS allows a seamless subscription leasing experience with guaranteed car availability,” continued Hedberg.
Subscription cars are door-delivered, vehicles come with the convenience of insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance and the vehicles can be switched, traded up, or returned at any time.
ekar was recognised as the highest utilised free-floating carsharing service globally in 2019, has serviced more than 250,000 customers, and booked an impressive 1.5 million trips in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. ekar is now taking on the global automotive subscription services market, which is set to surpass USD 40 billion by 2026, according to a research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. and is launching in Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, and Egypt over the next 12 months.
