(Yicai Global) Aug. 25 -- Mobile Internet car rental platform Didi Car Rental instituted its timeshare car rentalbusiness to provide short-term car rental self-driving services to enter the timeshare car hire market.  

On August 24th, following the kick-off of its day rental and overseas car rental business, Didi Car Rental unveiled its timeshare car rental service, which is mainly for short-distance travel and provides more flexible and diversified self-driving travel services.

This business is now piloting in Shanghai, Wuhan and Chengdu and will gradually expand to other cities, jiemian.com reported.

Compared with day rental products, no booking is required for timeshare car rental services, media reported. After ordering, a user can immediately pick up a car. The future service network will cover core areas of cities. Users can pick up or return timeshare cars within a one-kilometer walking or cycling radius of pick-up.

Charges are mainly based on a per-minute tariff, with no surcharges for fuel costs. After more than six hours' rental, time-based fees cease, with the only remaining charges being for mileage and insurance.

The cars used as timeshare rentals are fuel-poweredvehicles suitable for long-haul self-driving travel.Customers pick up and return the cars themselves to increase flexibility. To ensure vehicle cleanliness and safety, dedicated personnel within the service network inspect and clean cars, DiDi said.

China's online car rental market attained the CNY430 million-mark last year and is expected to hit CNY9.28 billion by 2020. At present, there are more than 100 car-sharing firms operating in China's timeshare car rental market, data show. Larger-scale operators include the timeshare rental platform Gofun, started by Beijing-based Beijing Shouqi Group Co., whose business now encompasses 21 cities and has a fleet exceeding 12,000 vehicles.

Didi Car Rental is a new transportation service launched by the one-stop transportation platform Didi Chuxing(Beijing Orange Technology Co.)  which debuted last July, and now runs in Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan, Qingdao, Beijing and Shenzhen. DiDi's overseas car rental service extended to more than 100 countries by January, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and most European countries.