Zipcar service makes inroads in Scotland
Cambridge-based Zipcar Inc. is planning to motor into Scotland, putting 10 cars on the streets in Edinburgh today and 10 more in Glasgow next Friday.
The expansion is an extension of Zipcar’s acquisition last month of Streetcar Ltd., the largest car-sharing company in the United Kingdom. The service will be called Streetcar until the transition to the Zipcar brand is finished.
“This is really putting a flag in the ground of another country,’’ said Zipcar spokesman John Williams.
Zipcar has 400,000 members and 7,000 cars in the United States, Canada, England, and now Scotland. Zipcar also has a minority share in the Barcelona company Avancar.
The 11-year-old company, which has identified 70 operators in Europe, plans to keep growing. “We’ll continue to look for opportunities to bring the benefits of car sharing to more places,’’ Williams said.
Further expansion in Europe makes sense, said David Zhao, an industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. According to a recent study by the global growth consulting firm, the European car-sharing market will be a $3.2 billion industry by 2016, with 77,000 vehicles and 5.5 million members.
Germany is the largest car-sharing market in Europe, Zhao said, but users in the United Kingdom are on the rise. “The UK market has the most potential in the next three to five years,’’ he said.
Katie Johnston Chase can be reached at johnstonchase@globe.com. 
