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Volkswagen Financial Services (VW FS) and Pon Holdings (Pon) have announced a development in their partnership in company bike leasing with VW FS acquiring a 49% stake in the Pon bike leasing subsidiary Bike Mobility Services (BMS).
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on this strategic alliance was signed at the IAA Mobility motor show in Munich earlier this week. The aim is to jointly expand in the growing bicycle and e-bike leasing business in Europe and the USA.
Dr. Christian Dahlheim, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, said: “Our partnership with Pon is another important step in our development into a broad-based mobility services provider, thereby supporting the strategic goals of the Volkswagen Group.
“There is great potential in bike leasing as an additional profit pool, which perfectly complements our current mobility portfolio. We are thus systematically expanding our service offering for commercial customers and supporting our long-term growth in the European fleet business.
“We are determined to fully exploit the strengths of Europe’s leading automotive captive company and the world’s leading bike company.”
BMS is one of Europe’s leading bike leasing company and operates in six countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Sweden, and recently the USA).
It is currently providing company bikes to more than 600,000 employees working in 65,000 companies from large corporations to SMBs.
Around 90% of its lease bikes are electric, delivered and serviced through a network of 8,000 bike dealers.
The BMS brands are BusinessBike, Lease a Bike and B2Bike. In Germany, VW FS and BMS have already been working together successfully for over three years.
Janus Smalbraak, CEO of Pon Holdings, added: “Together with VW FS, which already has a global footprint and global financial structure in place, I am convinced we hold a unique position to accelerate the international expansion of bicycle leasing together.
“The company bike fulfils a clear need of employees, employers and governments, which is why we have been able to grow the business so fast in the last five years. The e-bike plays a vital role in future commuting and the lease option provides employees with much broader accessibility made possible by their employers.
“The outlook for both Europe and USA is very promising. It is exciting to join Volkswagen in its further steps in the bike market and work together on mobility offerings.”
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The cooperation between Pon and the Volkswagen Group has a long tradition.
For example, the Volkswagen Bus (Bulli in German) was created more than 75 years ago on the basis of a sketch by Ben Pon, Sr. The largest importer for the Volkswagen Group brands in the Netherlands is Pon.
Recently, Porsche and Pon announced the establishment of two joint ventures for the development of e-bikes and solutions in the field of micro mobility. In addition, the Volkswagen Group and Pon Holdings are together developing Europcar in the direction of a global mobility platform.
The investment of Volkswagen Financial Services AG in Bike Mobility Services is subject to approval by the regulatory authorities and by the Supervisory Boards of Volkswagen AG and Volkswagen Financial Services AG.
