The company had cars in Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Nelson.
Photo: Supplied
Users of car sharing service Mevo are gutted the company has gone into voluntary administration, saying it is a cost-effective and climate-conscious choice that has served them well for years.
The Wellington-based company had cars in the capital as well as Auckland, Hamilton and Nelson.
Users reserve a car through an app, unlock it and drive, paying a flat rate for however long they use it and returning it to a choice of dedicated Mevo parks.
Mevo went into voluntary administration on Monday, and regular customers are hoping it will come out the other side.
Peter Graczer lives in Mount Cook, just outside Wellington’s city centre, and said Mevo prevented him from needing his own car.
“We used to have a car, but Mevo turned out to be more economical because we only had that once every week or so use case,” he said.
“It made living without a car actually realistic.”
The service was perfect for weekend trips to pick up bulky items from hardware shops, a trip to the tip and the weekly groceries, said Graczer.
“It’s those occasional errands that it was really perfect for where public transport and Uber just don’t work.”
It was a shame that the company could be going out of business, and he was forced to consider buying a car, he said.
“I just don’t see an alternative which is as flexible and as convenient as Mevo has been for the last few years.”
Wellingtonian Denise Garland had been using Mevo to get to work for years, because her shifts started early, before buses were running.
“It was a really amazing option being able to just pick up a car from down the road and then drop it off outside my workplace,” she said.
She also used it for big supermarket shops, and road trips.
“Just pick up a Mevo, drive it to Castlepoint or even to Hawke’s Bay, have it as a runabout for a couple of days and then return home, park it outside the house and end the trip. Super simple.”
For Garland, it was a climate-conscious choice: much of Mevo’s fleet was electric.
“I made a conscious decision not to buy another petrol vehicle ever again, and electric vehicles are very expensive, so it was much more cost-effective and also very convenient to just be able to pick up Mevos from around the city or outside my house in Miramar and use those.”
She would really miss the service if it closed, and it would make life that little bit more difficult, she said.
Samantha Richards has her own car, but for a quick whip into town or the airport Mevo worked out cheaper – because it has free dedicated car parks.
The prospect of Mevo’s closure was “tragic”, she said.
“It was a great model … I wish we had cars parked on every street that we could all share instead of everybody owning a car or two cars per family.
“I think it’s the future of car use, is to have some system like that.”
For that reason, Richards wanted to support Mevo and had been using it as much as she could, as well as spreading the word to family and friends in an attempt to support the company’s concept.
Mevo could continue under new ownership – administrator
Mevo co-founder Erik Zydervelt referred RNZ’s request for comment to the voluntary administrators appointed on Monday: BDO Wellington’s Jessica Kellow and Iain Shephard.
Kellow said Mevo still had a future.
The 10-year-old company had recorded profits as recently as the last few quarters of last year, but struggled recently to make enough with its expensive fleet, she said.
It was starting to move away from Teslas and BYDs to the likes of Suzuki Swifts.
“The modelling did show that this would be a clear pathway to a turnaround, if you like, but they just essentially have run out of runway.”
The company was also considering adding another option to its offering – having private car owners leasing cars to Mevo, to on-rent.
An investor was set to give Mevo $1.7 million which would have seen it through, but Kellow said they pulled out because Mevo breached some conditions.
She would not give any further detail.
Voluntary administration gives the company breathing space to figure out its next move – investment or sale. Kellow said the latter was more likely.
“We are working with parties that have expressed an interest in completing some due diligence on the business, and we’re hopeful that might lead to a transition of … the business to a new entity or investment into that current platform.”
That would need to be completed within 30 days of the company being placed into administration, which happened on 30 March.
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