Earlier this year Yandex expanded its transportation services and efforts to improve urban living by launching its first car sharing service, Yandex.Drive, becoming one of the largest services in Moscow and surpassing over 2 million rides within the first six months of operation. Yandex.Drive, which offers drivers on-demand access to a fleet of vehicles through a mobile application, has since added a business class option and yesterday announced a refueling service for its fleet.
Starting in February 2018 Yandex.Drive offered users in Moscow and the surrounding region access to a fleet of 750 vehicles that included Kia Rios, Kia Rio X-Lines or Renault Kapturs for as low as five roubles ($0.09) per minute. Within months of this launch Yandex.Drive has more than doubled its fleet to over two thousand vehicles to meet consumer demand.
Recently Yandex.Drive added Audi and VW cars to the fleet and started offering qualified drivers access to 500 business class vehicles that include Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5 series vehicles. The service also added new premium options that provide drivers access to crossover Porsche Macan vehicles and Porsche 911 Carrera 4S vehicles.
Drivers with a safe driving record over the age of 26 who have been licensed for a minimum of six years will have access to business class vehicles at a rate of 20 rubles per minute ($0.32) for Porches and 10 rubles per minute ($0.16) for Mercedes and BMW vehicles. Yandex.Drive rides are billed on a per minute basis and Yandex integrates traffic conditions and customer demand to provide dynamic pricing at the time of reservation. The price includes fuel, parking, liability and life insurance.
Moscow is an incredibly congested and challenging city in which to own a vehicle. This has led it to become the largest car-sharing market in Europe based on the overall available size of the fleet of vehicles. By offering users a viable alternative to car ownership through an accessible car sharing service that includes personalisation through the Yandex.Auto in-car infotainment system associated with each user’s account, plus a range of vehicle choices, Yandex.Drive has become one of the top services in the market.
Yandex also announced yesterday that it has plans to purchase a fleet of refueling trucks from Toplivovbak to integrate a more efficient refueling feature for Yandex.Drive cars. The refueling trucks will not only help drive overall costs down but also serve to benefit drivers who need to refuel when taking long trips with their Yandex.Drive car.
Refueling Yandex.Drive vehicles will be done automatically using algorithms that gauge the fuel levels in vehicles and send fueling trucks to nearby cars. By automating the process and monitoring of fuel levels, users won’t need to end their rides early or switch to another vehicle in order to refuel.
Users can start using Yandex.Drive by downloading the application for Android and iOS.