FindaHireCar.com

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of low-cost airline Easyjet, has teamed up with lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman to develop a short-term car sharing club similar to Zipcar & Streetcar.

The Car Club will be UK-based & operate alongside Sir Stelios’s EasyCar online car rental company. The operation is scheduled to launch in spring 2012. The business model differs from other car sharing operations, like Zipcar and City Car Club, because rather than buying a fleet of cars, owners “share” their vehicles and allow them to be rented out for an hourly fee. Car owners will be able to set the rental price of their vehicle and its availability to suit their requirements, and insurance will be included.

Bookings will be taken online, and cars will be fitted with an automated entry and tracker system, allowing owners to be away from their vehicles when they are rented out.

Sir Stelios, said the business model “could be the future of car rental and car ownership”. “Rather than having to buy the cars to be rented and pay the ownership costs, this business model relies on the fact that there are plenty of underused cars on the road already and that is lazy capital that can be put to work again,” he said.

The Car Club will operate on the website of EasyCar, which will continue separately with its traditional system of car hire.