“So the core of our mission is that we make alternative solutions – like MaaS concepts – attractive, encourage the abandonment of the private car and make the switch as easy as possible.”

Fluidtime: What are the biggest challenges for a company like Europcar when it comes to making mobility more sustainable and how can these be mastered?

de Thé: For us, sustainable mobility means tackling everyday congestion and traffic problems as well as global warming. This means that our solution approaches must move simultaneously in two directions: On the one hand, we will encourage society to get rid of the private car and use more car-sharing services. To achieve this, access to such services must be made easier and more attractive. Furthermore, we have to reduce CO2 emissions. To achieve this, more than 1/3 of our fleet will be equipped with electric or hybrid engines by 2023. We already joined the UN Global Compact in 2005 and recently launched a Net Zero in 2050 initiative as part of the Science Based Target. We are the only player in our industry that is strongly committed to the fight against CO2 emissions. We want to stay on this course.

Fluidtime: Many people perceive their own car as a symbol of personal freedom. How can sustainable mobility be made more attractive for a broad mass of our society?

de Thé: Freedom means being able to move where you want and when you want. It will be of particular importance that we can guarantee precisely this freedom and flexibility. Society should not feel restricted in its mobility. In today’s world, mindsets change very quickly and the mentality of many people is shifting from owning individual products to using flexible sharing services like Spotify or Netflix. Such offers are already firmly anchored in our everyday lives.