Robin Švaříček
He was born in 1990 in Třebíč. He graduated from the University of Economics in Prague. While still a student, he worked at Leo Express, where he worked his way into managerial positions. He has been working at HoppyGo since 2019. He is married and has a newborn son.

How in brief service?
It connects car owners willing to share a car with drivers looking for flexible and relevant mobility. For a day, for a week, for a month or longer. The 100% owner of HoppyGo is the Škoda Auto DigiLab innovation center. This, in turn, is wholly owned by Škoda Auto.

You claim that you provide a unique service. Have you not been inspired abroad?
In the beginning, she was inspired. A similar platform has been operating in the USA since 2010. At least in Central and Eastern Europe, however, we are the only ones. We offer car owners up to fifteen years old the opportunity to earn extra money instead of just standing for it somewhere. And we want to expand not only in Europe. We focus on markets where Škoda Auto is already active.

How do you solve the situation when he has a car, which the client discovers only during the loan?
The community of application users themselves solves this. After the first issue of the loan, you would get a bad rating and probably no one would rent a car anymore. In a situation where a technical problem manifests itself at the beginning or during the loan, we are looking for a free alternative in a fleet of over two thousand cars. In the event of a technical problem, of course, the landlord returns all money. As a company, we are not responsible for the technical condition of vehicles, but we always try to make the car as safe as possible.

How much is the “Prague Affairs” service?
We already have almost all districts in the Czech Republic, but Prague is undoubtedly dominant. Today, it does not even account for over 80 percent of all loans. We started in Prague and the metropolis is, of course, the most active due to its size, population structure and their access to new mobility services.

Executive director of the HoppyGo car sharing and rental platform Robin Švaříček.Source: with permission from HoppyGo

Can you demonstrate the growth of the company to specific numbers?
I consider over 10 million crowns paid to owners for the summer season to be an interesting milestone. This means a year-on-year increase of over 40 percent. We have done over 20 “loan-days” this season. The average length was 5.3 days. In this case, it is mainly people who rent a car for vacation. But we also have loans lasting 70 to 80 days. The service has been operating since 2017 and has been growing very strongly for the last three years, by tens of percent per year.

So who is a typical user of services?
This is hard to say because the range is wide. Men predominate with some 70 percent. The average user is a man between 30 and 39 years old. We do not ask customers directly for travel purposes, but it is obvious that the most common are trips to the weekend, for business and holidays. The range of owners who offer their cars via the platform is also very wide. We have, for example, a lady who is over 70 years old and rents her car very actively. After the arrival of the covid, we also opened the platform to company cars, for which there was suddenly no use.

What types and categories of cars can one find on the platform?
All possible. In summer you need a convertible, in winter delivery. You can rent a Škoda Enyaq iV electric car, rented by the carmaker, for up to four days. I think this is a unique offer, because charging people wants to try this car in terms of range, on and the like. Every week you can order a different type of car and the rental period can be changed according to changing needs. With a long-term loan, which is nota bene more advantageous, waiting for the delivery of the ordered car can be solved. Flexibility is also possible to gradually extend the loan according to the development of the situation, which is not possible with such an operating lease.

How much are cars for rent and what is your commission?
You could rent the cheapest car today from some 350 crowns a day. On the other hand, we offer very expensive sports cars of the Aston Martin type. There the price goes into the thousands. For the most frequently rented car, the Škoda Octavia, the average owner earns 4,500 to 6,000 crowns a month. This is provided that the car is rented for about five days, which the landlord determines. This I think is conceivable today for most car owners. He determines the price for the loan himself. The driver then either accepts it or not. HoppyGo only mediates the transaction and then takes a 20% commission.

How do you think carsharing is beneficial for the whole society or city?
Abroad, new real estate projects are being built without parking spaces. Prague needs a lot of new apartments. If it should be built without parking spaces, many people may have a problem. Even the real estate market, in my opinion, is moving from ownership to use. He stops thinking that people should own cars, but he says – let’s consume individual transport only when we really need it. This eliminates the need to build parking spaces. Many people today can imagine, thanks to our inspiration, life without their own car. Many, especially younger people, are starting to take a different path than owning a car, which has a number of concerns, including related service or insurance. I see a long-term trend in this approach. Whether the alternative is HoppyGo or something else.

Do you perceive “classic” carsharing as a competition?
We do mostly a different business and rather complement each other. They do minute or hour “free floating” carsharing, we start on one day. That is, where they end.