The PSA Group, parent company of Peugeot, Citroën and DS, has launched a new brand called Free 2 Move, which will be in charge of its mobility and smart services operations.
Free 2 Move’s launch is part of PSA’s ‘Push to Pass’ strategy, which pulled the company out of financial difficulties and into profit. The second part of the plan was announced by PSA boss Carlos Tavares earlier this year. The group is discussing its new brand in detail at the Paris motor show.
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Free 2 Move was created after several investments in related firms, such as PSA’s purchase in a stake of Canadian car-sharing company Communauto, partnering with Masternaut, an Anglo-French telematics company that specialises in fleet management, and a €100 million (around £86m) investment in two car rental start-ups, Koolicar and Travelcar.
Grégoire Olivier, executive vice president of mobility services for PSA, said at the Free 2 Move launch: "For the PSA Group, mobility means not only making and selling excellent cars, but also offering a full range of mobility solutions.
Read more about 'Push to Pass' here
“The launch of this new brand will enable the PSA Group to achieve the objectives set out in our Push to Pass plan and be the leading mobility provider for our customers. Free 2 Move serves the freedom of movement to our customers."
PSA claims that the new brand will “unite the entire mobility and smart services” of the group, with a focus upon car-sharing, which has become a hot topic since the scope of autonomous motoring opened up the possibilities of such schemes, as well as calling the future of car ownership into question.
Will 'Push to Pass' work? Read what we think about it here
PSA’s Free 2 Move brand is also working with IBM on its ‘Smarter Cities’ project, which, among other current issues, aims to use connected cars to pass information around communities and other road users.
Other manufacturers have hinted at similar strategies for car-sharing, although many, such as Tesla’s, are dependent on the shared vehicle being fully autonomous. Read more about Tesla's plan here.
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