September 25, 2025 - Microleases To Get People Into EVs

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for September 23, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry.  

Free2Move is the mobility services business unit of Stellantis. Founded in France in 2016 when it was still part of PSA, the unit has launched a wide variety of services, including car-sharing, an aggregation app that enables users to compare different transportation options and book the most suitable ride and short-term rentals. 

The most recent effort is a subscription service called Car on Demand. Many automakers and third parties have launched and ultimately abandoned subscription services. There have been several business models, such as Book by Cadillac, that allowed customers to pay a single monthly fee and get any vehicle in the brand lineup, along with insurance and maintenance. This model proved to be too costly with monthly fees of $1,500 or more, and was expensive to operate because of the logistics of delivering and picking up vehicles. Often, with other single-brand programs, dealers didn't want to participate and let the automaker control the customer relationship.

The Free2Move service is most similar to Hyundai's Evolve+, which is a month-to-month micro-lease. However, the Hyundai program is limited to a limited number of Hyundai vehicles. Free2Move works with any dealer from any brand that wants to participate. They tie into the dealer management system to access the dealer's inventory, and all of the available vehicles are made available through the website. When a customer chooses a vehicle, Free2Move purchases the vehicle from the dealer and handles the financing for the customer. The lease rates include insurance, and the pricing is only slightly above a traditional lease. This is a great way for consumers to try out an EV over a period longer than a traditional test drive to see if it works for them. Most customers are keeping vehicles for three to four months. If the customer decides they want to purchase the vehicle, any payments made up to that point are applied toward the purchase price, or a customer can return a vehicle at the end of any month. 

This is an interesting variation on the subscription model that might just work and may get more people into EVs. 

Thanks for listening.