VW sells Weshare to Miles

VW boss Oliver Blume's austerity program continues. The fleet of 2,000 cars is now changing hands.

The car sharing service Weshare now belongs to its direct competitor Miles. A purchase price is not known. The fleet of the VW company Weshare comprises 2,000 fully electric cars in Berlin and Hamburg, which are now being added to the Miles fleet. There is also a new order for VW as part of the deal. Miles, which was founded in 2016, is ordering 10,000 electric cars to be delivered in the coming year.

Weshare launched in Berlin and Hamburg in 2019 and had 200,000 users, according to the company. The VW-owned start-up has never been profitable. Miles has not been profitable either, but that seems to be slowly changing. How Gründerszene reports, the company quadrupled its turnover last year to 20 million euros and made a profit in some cities.

The sale is part of the cost-cutting measures of Oliver Blume, who has been head of Volkswagen for around two months. Last week, the company gave up its stake in the start-up Argo AI, which is based in the USA. Volkswagen invested around 2.6 billion US dollars in autonomous driving here in 2019. For Miles, the purchase represents a step towards electrifying its own fleet, says CEO Oliver Mackprang. The Miles fleet currently comprises 9,000 vehicles in eight major cities and is set to grow significantly over the next few years.