As surging inflation and the cost of living bite, a new side hustle opportunity known as the ‘Airbnb of cars’ and worth up to $20,000 a year for Aussie car owners is about to launch later this year in all major cities.
Turo is the world’s largest car-sharing marketplace and, like its accommodation counterpart, car owners list their personal vehicles on the site (from trucks to luxury cars and everything in between) while drivers can rent them out for a series of days or weeks.
Residents or tourists can use the platform as long as they hold a valid driver’s licence, meaning car owners can cash in as inbound international tourism revs up again after the pandemic’s long border closure.
And it can turn into quite a lucrative side gig, according to the company. Turo says its top global hosts earn an average of $19,112 a year on the platform, often offsetting part or all of the costs of their vehicle.
San Francisco-based Turo is not exactly moving into a hole in the market, however: Australia is already home to carshare companies GoGet, Car Next Door, Flexicar, DriveMate and Popcar, among others, with many battling to be the most cost-affordable on the market.
It also comes after rideshare giant Uber acquired car-sharing app Car Next Door in January this year.
But Turo Australia managing director Tim Rossanis, who is an Uber ANZ alumni, is up for a little competition.
“We’re excited to provide local hosts with an entrepreneurial opportunity to supplement their income while helping to meet the increasing demand from both Aussies and international visitors during peak travel season around the country,” said Rossanis.
“Turo plans to put the 20 million registered cars in Australia to better use and expand access for local car owners to a global network of guests.”
Australia will be the car platform’s fifth market, with 125,000 active hosts and 250,000 active vehicles in 9,500 cities across the US, Canada, the UK and France.
And things are moving fast. Indeed its launch date “later this year” will mark the second major international expansion this year after it acquired French competitor OuiCar, which was dominating the car-sharing industry in France.
OuiCar, which will slowly rebrand to Turo, has 2.6 million users and approximately 30,000 vehicles on the platform, spruiking cars-as-a-service, rather than car ownership, to French drivers.
“Turo and OuiCar have a shared vision for the future of peer-to-peer car sharing, and we’re thrilled to join forces to put France’s 38 million cars to better use,” Turo CEO Andre Haddad said in June.
“We are pleased to join forces, so French hosts and guests, and those travelling to France, will benefit tremendously from our joint network, extraordinary selection of vehicles, and excellent quality of service,” OuiCar CEO Benoît Sineau added.
Turo filed to go public in January but is yet to make its debut. In a regulatory filing, the company said it expects its operating expenses, and therefore its net losses, to increase substantially as the platform sees hordes of new guests and hosts sign up, as well as growing partnerships and expanding internationally.
Local car owners in all major cities, including Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, can join the waitlist on Turo’s website now.
Emma Elsworthy is Climate Editor at Crikey, SmartCompany, and The Mandarin, and writes daily morning newsletter the Worm. Before joining Crikey in 2021, Emma was a breaking news reporter in ABC’s Sydney newsroom, a journalist at BBC Australia, and a journalist in Fairfax Media’s regional network. She was part of a team awarded a Walkley for coverage of the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire crisis, and won the Australian Press Council prize in 2013.
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