Toyota tie up with taxi giant Uber for ride sharing

United States: Global automakers are investing in the taxi business to enhance the ride sharing culture. The move is growing fast and influencing other automakers worldwide. Although, the amount of investment was not disclosed but the Toyota’s captive finance arm is set to offer flexible leasing options to drivers in U.S by the end of 2016 to enhance its driver’s base. The two companies plan to start joint projects probably in the second half of the current year. The partnership is considered to be of great potential as it revolves around two players that lead their respective spaces.

Uber’s main contender in the US, San Francisco based Lyft Inc. has already tied up with the country’s largest automaker General Motors and almost an investment of US$ 500 million is expected in the ride hailing service and is also providing its vehicles to Lyft. On the other hand, Europe’s largest and the world’s second largest automaker Volkswagen had also invested US$ 300 million in Gett, an Israel based ride-hailing start-up and BMW AG made its deal with Scoop Technologies Inc., of San Francisco, maker of a mobile carpooling app.

Toyota senior managing official Shigeki Tomoyama says, “the demand for Ridesharing is rising exponentially and it also has huge potential in terms of designing the future of mobility. The company hopes to explore new ways of delivering secure, appropriate and attractive mobility facilities to the customers”.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “United States Radio Taxi Services Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2021’’ Radio taxi services market in the United States is forecast to grow at CAGR of about 6.6%, in value terms, during 2016 -2021. In 2015, For-Hire Vehicle (FHV) operators or the private service providers, accounted for the majority share in the United States radio taxi services market. Southeast region of the country comprising Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, etc. dominated the country’s radio taxi services market in 2015, followed by Northeast region.