[ MUSIC ] Zipcar is a, an alternative car ownership. We park our cars around the cities. We're in 13 major cities in the US, Canada and and now London. And it's sort of like getting car ownership but one hour at a time. We charge by the hour or by the day, for as long as you need to use our car. It includes the gas while you're in the vehicle. It includes a personal liability policy, so you're insured while you're in the car. So it really is a replacement for car ownership but very technology enabled. Scott, it sounds like a tremendous logistical challenge. You have a fleet of how many cars? We have about 6, 500 cars now, and the members actually tell you which cars they want in the fleet. We actually ask the members: what kind of cars do you like to drive? What do you want to drive if we don't have them? And so they tell us. And then we enable each of those cars with our own technology. And we, we literally install a black box in the car. Which is a cell phone modem plus a lot more technology that allows us to manage access to those vehicles. So managing that huge fleet must be a huge challenge. Can you tell me a little bit about the technology that allows you to do that? Right. I mean the first challenge is that this is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So it has to be self service. So the members have access through the website or through their iPhone App, to be able to get access to those cars. But one of the really important parts of, of our technology is the sort of back office. We have this system that integrates the reservations system plus all the back office logistics management. How many times is the car cleaned, is the oil changed, does it need a tire rotation? So all of that's happening in a self- service model. So we have this wonderful, integrated system that has the front office, all the reservation and customer touch- points integrated with the back office. The billing systems, the cleaning and maintenance and scheduling of the fleet. So that's all integrated together and that's really the secret sauce of Zipcar around the technology. That allows this scalable high tech self service solution. And, and it works so well that you've been able to license it out to municipalities. Washington D. C. is your first customer I believe. That's exactly what's happening, earlier this year we've lost a new service that we called fast fleet. We have taken our technology and we are now offering it to government, and university, and corporate partners who have, also have large fleets. Allows them to have efficient scheduling systems fleeting management systems and vehicle access systems just like we have in our service they own the car and we power it with our technology. It is also a leading, i think a leading example of, as we see electric vehicles come into fleets, of how they'll have to be operated. We have the benefit of having this scheduling system in the vehicle access system integrated into the Zip Car, technology. And as electric vehicles come into service, they're gonna have to schedule downtime. I mean, we can't go by a gas station and just fill 'em up. We've got to plug them in, and let them charge up for a while. So our system is going to integrate very well with electric vehicles, and that's one of the things that governments and universities and corporate partners are very interested in. Is how are they going to schedule all of this and manage the logistics of having electric vehicles, and this is it starts with gas- powered cars, but this is a. A terrific way to enter into the EB business too. So you'll have charging stations at the locations where the cars are kept. That's exactly what will happen and we're already demonstrating that in San Francisco with a converted Prius. It has a larger battery and it's a plug in Prius hybrid and so soon I suspect in Washington DC. Washington DC city government is our first partner for fast fleet and they've, they're now trying different technology vehicles and electric vehicles will probably be next down there, so we'll put some charging stations in. They'll be able to charge the cars up and schedule the use and down time through the zip car system. And you have ambitions to become a billion dollar company. How many members would that be and do you think you can scale it to that size? We do. We've invested heavily in technology, logistics management and building a brand that's about lifestyle. And so we have a very unique view of the market because of that. And that will be about a million to a million and a half unique members. So up from 300, 000 today, a significant jump in membership. But we think we're developing the technology and the systems and, and what we call purpose built processes that will go the distance to that level. We did a merger about a year and a half ago with a company called Flex Car to, to literally get ourselves up to a higher scale. And we brought in part of their team, including their, their CEO, whose now our President and COO, to really beef up the team that we have as well, our bench strength. And so, we've been investing in the team, and the technology, and in the brand, to get to that billion- dollar scale.

CEO Scott Griffith says the car rental company plans to grow its customer base and become a billion-dollar company.

Zipcar\'s $1 billion ambitions