ANYMOVE is a community of vehicle operators that aims to give people access to sustainable, shared mobility. Based in Germany, the ANYMOVE technology platform integrated with Smartcar to enable an effortless experience for individuals and businesses to rent and manage shared vehicles.
What contributes to sustainable mobility? Electrification, carbon-free modes of transport, and a shift away from vehicle ownership.
Although EVs produce 50% less emissions than gas-powered vehicles over the first 150,000 miles, it still isn’t enough for transportation sectors around the world to meet decarbonization goals.
In countries like the US and the UK, cars are parked over 95 percent of the time. This contributes to unnecessary emissions from the manufacturing of vehicles — which is a very carbon-intensive process — only for the average individual to use it 6 hours a week.
But what would happen if multiple riders shared one vehicle throughout the week for their short trips? You guessed it: Fewer cars on the road. One study found that shared vehicles can decrease our cumulative carbon footprint by over 40% by 2050.
That’s where technology solutions like ANYMOVE come in.
From vehicle ‘ownership’ to vehicle ‘usership’
ANYMOVE aims to build a future where cars are better utilized and made accessible for consumers through an easy-to-use digital rental experience.
Their solution currently provides rental vehicles in eight cities in Germany and allows individuals to rent vehicles located within close proximity to where they are. This allows users to travel to their destination with the same level of convenience they would get with a personally owned vehicle. The platform also has features to schedule rides and deliver rental vehicles to a rider’s doorstep.
In addition, fleet operators or individual vehicle owners can use the operating system (ANYMOVE OS) to rent out and manage their vehicles effortlessly — for hours, days, or months. Renters can choose from a wide range of available vehicles thanks to the diversity of fleets on the platform.
All rental operations are managed within ANYMOVE OS + app, so renters don’t have to visit a physical branch or meet vehicle hosts in-person to get car keys. With the help of Smartcar’s APIs, ANYMOVE can scale these software-only capabilities with its platform.
After talking to other rental operators, we saw that Smartcar was the most loved telematics solution because it’s simple, fast, and flexible.
— Julian Schildknecht, Head of Brand and Growth at ANYMOVE
Simplifying shared mobility with car APIs
For ANYMOVE’s own rental fleet, it was important to build a user-friendly experience that gives commuters the flexibility to find an available vehicle wherever they are, whenever they need it. To enable fast and 24/7 service, the platform requires accurate data and stable connections with as many vehicles as possible.
But building these integrations from scratch is a big lift for any mobility business. At first, ANYMOVE integrated with vehicles in their fleet using an in-house solution. However, maintaining the quality of these custom integrations to avoid errors and inconsistencies, on top of maintaining the ANYMOVE platform itself, proved to be challenging.
So, the team decided to look for a car API provider that could equip the platform with the technical resources necessary to reduce car connectivity errors without taking engineering resources away from their core product.
“We considered integrating the Tesla API directly as Tesla is one of the biggest OEMs in our fleet,” Julian adds. “In the end, we decided on integrating Smartcar as it offered wide connectivity and strong technical foundations.”
ANYMOVE retrieves timely telemetry data with the following Smartcar APIs to enable a smooth and seamless user experience for both vehicle renters and hosts:
📍Location: Locate cars within walking distance from where renters are.
🔓Lock and unlock: Share digital car keys with renters to allow 24/7 bookings.
🛣 Odometer: Set accurate rental fees with mileage data before and after trips.
🔋 State of charge: Ensure that cars have enough range for each trip.
⛽ Fuel level: Check if a car has enough gas for each trip.
Building a reliable software-only solution
For ANYMOVE, the reliability of their platform is dependent on their users’ ability to find and access vehicles in a timely manner.
“The metrics we look at for supporting cars on the app are if it’s possible to connect to the EV, how reliable is the data, and how fast can we open and close the car doors,” says Tom Packebusch, Head of Product at ANYMOVE. “You don’t want to have a user wait 30 seconds just to unlock the car.”
With the help of Smartcar’s API, the team saw a big decrease in connectivity issues when users lock and unlock rental vehicles. “We were able to massively improve our user experience for our customers and see huge savings in time for our Customer Support team,” Julian says.
Smartcar has enabled us to seamlessly integrate additional car models and distinguishes itself as an efficient solution without the need for added hardware.
—Julian Schildknecht, Head of Brand and Growth at ANYMOVE
Advancing shared mobility with powerful app-based experiences
Car ownership isn’t the optimal choice for everyone — but that shouldn’t eliminate an option for hassle-free travel.
ANYMOVE’s rental software and platform for operators is an important step toward making shared mobility reliable, accessible, and purely digital for everyday commuters. Smartcar is proud to work with ANYMOVE to enable on-demand travel and give rental operators a convenient way to make their fleets available for app-based bookings.
“As a rental operator, we love that we can provide an ideal user experience with Smartcar’s solution,” says Julian. “But we love using the API even more because of its important role in helping us scale our efforts to help other operators utilize our software.”
You can learn more about ANYMOVE and download their app by visiting their website.
Vehicle brands, logos, and model names belong to their respective trademark holders and do not indicate endorsement or affiliation with Smartcar or ANYMOVE.
