Juicar is taking the next exit

Dear colleagues and friends,

Our corporate venture Juicar (www.juicar.com) will be shut down in September — exactly three years after embarking on an ambitious journey to build the "Netflix for Electric Cars". Our vision was to establish a flexible and hassle-free e-mobility subscription service that would enable motorists in various European countries to drive an electric car without having to buy it.

A pioneer in the field, we have built a truly revolutionary product that attracted an excited, loyal and constantly growing customer base in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. We still believe in a bright future for subscription mobility, and yet we have to admit that both electric cars and vehicle subscription services are still in their infancy. After having operated in this niche market for a while, we feel that it is simply not the right time for us to grow this business further.

It has been a truly enjoyable rollercoaster ride to build Juicar from the ground up with an absolutely amazing team, and an incredible honour to serve our customers. As such, I am very proud to say that our existing Juicar customers are given various attractive and bespoke options to keep their vehicle and home charging solution.

As the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reminisces in his book The Wisdom of the Sands, building a ship is not about weaving sailcloth, forging nails or reading the stars, but about giving your crew a taste for the vast sea. My passion as an entrepreneur is to take people with me on a turbulent journey through inspiration and a shared sense of purpose.

The purpose of Juicar was not only to make e-mobility work. It helped us to nurture an entrepreneurial and customer-centric mindset in the entire team, and to create a breeding ground where many more ideas can flourish in the future. Over time, we have acquired essential skills and capabilities that can and will be applied to other innovation projects. The Oyster Lab will live on and we are committed to explore new business opportunities in other areas.

Lastly, my sincere appreciation goes to the team for their tremendous passion and enthusiasm, to our customers for pioneering this service with us (and for their patience at times), and to our partners and colleagues for their continuous trust and support. The best of luck to our competitors with legitimating this new form of mobility.