Features
18 May 19

Save the planet by washing your car differently

Standing still means going backwards, in fleet and mobility more than in any other industry. That’s why the World Shopper Conference in Portugal was dedicated to innovation in automotive and mobility. In one session, five companies got five minutes each to convince the audience their new product or service deserved their vote. The winner was somewhat surprising, though.

Quikly: Car-as-a-Service

Car-as-a-Service, that’s the premise of Quikly. Drivers today want mobility without car ownership. At the same time, dealers are sitting on immobilised vehicle stock. Why not combine both and use the dealers’ fleets for a flexible car subscription service?

Quikly is already operational in various Spanish cities, where drivers can use an app to select a vehicle they like for a couple of hours, days or even months. Expansion into Portugal and at a later stage the rest of Europe is being prepared.

Swapi, a Spanish start-up also represented at World Shopper, is launching a pilot in Barcelona to offer roughly the same service but aiming at longer, mid-short term rentals.

LG: customise your new car on a large screen

Not exactly a start-up, but who said innovation can’t come from the big players? LG showcased its Signage Solution, a large OLED monitor with touch capability that can be set up in dealer showrooms to give prospective buyers a large representation of the car they’re interested in. Through simple taps on the screen, people can customise the vehicle by selecting colours or equipment.

LG has already implemented this technology in in Mercedes-Benz dealership in Cascais and is in talks with PSA for another project.

Dapda: turn leads into sales

Dapda developed Leadin, a lead follow-up application for car dealers. Answer times are of the utmost importance to transform leads into actual sales, and an app can help dealers achieve that. The app also features capabilities to follow up how many leads were responded to in time, and how many led to new sales.

Experienced Management: temporary employment for over 50s

This temporary employment agency focused on the Portuguese market wants to combine two problems. On the one hand, people over 50 years old often have trouble finding or keeping employment. On the other hand, various companies look for high-level, experienced profiles for short-term projects in the automotive industry.

If more people over 50 years old could remain active, this could have a positive outcome on the Portuguese economy and lead to GDP growth, stated Mario Fernandes, a spokesman for the company.

Ecoline Wash: steam washes your car

On average, washing a car requires 100 liters of water. However, in many parts of the world, water is a precious, scarce commodity. Ecoline Wash promises it can save 99.8% of all water wasted when washing cars by using a steam system. The power of vapour can wash most kinds of dirt of a car and can even remove most bacteria.

And because this is 2019, the company also has an app that can be used to order a wash for your car online. The company can send a van with a mobile steam machine to clean your car at your specified location.

This Italian company is now developing its activities on the Spanish and Italian markets.

And the winner is...

The popular vote was won by Experienced Management, perhaps as a sign of both the average age and the average origin of a large part of the participants of this World Shopper Congress.

Image credit: Ecoline Wash

Authored by: Benjamin Uyttebroeck