Poppy Mobility, the car, e-scooter, and e-bike sharing daughter of D’Ieteren Automotive, is taking its first steps in Wallonia, in Liège, to be more specific. The shared mobility company, with a fleet of bright red vehicles, has been active in Antwerp, Mechelen, Brussels, Ghent, and the Belgian airports.

In January of this year, Poppy announced its plans to triple its fleet of shared cars from 1 000 to 3 000 in the following months to comply with the growing demand of about 200 000 users. In Liège, Poppy will launch 80 cars, of which five vans.

Standing still 95% of the time

According to Sylvain Niset, CEO of Poppy Mobility, one shared car can replace up to fifteen private passenger cars. As a result, more than 1 000 parking spaces can be freed up with eighty shared cars.

Private cars are only used 5% of the time. The rest of the time, they’re standing still. So, sharing cars with several users optimizes their use. Poppy Mobility offers its car-sharing service using an app. Users can download the app, book a ride, unlock the vehicle, and begin their journey. Trips are charged per minute and day. Fuel, parking, insurance, and maintenance are included in that price.

‘Inter-city’ trips

Users can make local trips or even ‘inter-city’ journeys. For example, they can pick up a vehicle in one zone and drop it off in another city where the Poppy service is available. This way, Poppy enables users to travel throughout Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Luxembourg – provided that the vehicle is returned to a Belgian zone.

Poppy started in 2018 in Antwerp as a shared mobility platform. Last year, the company launched more than 1 500 shared e-scooters in Brussels. It’s the only app in Brussels to offer shared cars, vans, and e-scooters.

Several recent studies have indicated that more and more youngsters (18-25 years old) opt for soft mobility solutions. Shared e-scooters are the most popular means of transport in this category.