Vehicle subscription specialist Mycardirect has revealed ambitious growth plans as it celebrates its three-year anniversary.

Duncan Chumley, previously CEO of Mycardirect, now heads up the whole AAM Group

The business, part of mobility business AAM Group, was founded in 2020 during the pandemic and has achieved year-on-year growth since.

Now, Duncan Chumley, previously CEO of Mycardirect and now heading up the whole group, has said the prospects for future growth are very strong with both corporate and consumer demand for a flexible vehicle solution continuing.

Speaking at the anniversary event, Chumley said Mycardirect currently has a base of more than 2,000 members, but is looking to expand this to 6,000+ over the next three years, despite the UK’s challenging economic environment.

Chumley attributed the success of Mycardirect to the “unparalleled flexibility of vehicle subscription”, which he said remains the driving force behind this remarkable journey for both fleets and private drivers.

“So, it has some key advantages for certain businesses and people. It allows customers the ability to swap, change, move whenever they want without having to be locked into a finance agreement.

“Now I think really in this time of economic uncertainty, from a business perspective, the ability that they can swap cars if they want to or hand their car back really helps.

“From a personal perspective, if you’re on a subscription rather than personal leasing, if you do need to downgrade, or upgrade, both are available. Maybe you need to significantly reduce your payments because your mortgage rates are going up, again you’re not locked it. So, it gives you that flexibility over leasing.”

He continued: “In terms of our customer profile, it ranges from small business, all the way up to some big multinationals. In terms of consumers, we range all the way from people who are looking for cars maybe for the first time to try out something, all the way to people who don’t want to buy anymore but want the flexibility to change when they want, rather than locking themselves into a three- or four-year finance agreement. And that’s really I guess our key selling point.”

Chumley also said the company’s ever-expanding vehicle choice and the availability of electric vehicles were key to its success too.

“I’ve always gone with the fact that we try to provide the cars that customers ask us for – and we build our fleet around customer demand. Naturally, we’re seeing EV; [we’re] slightly higher than the market for EVs. And we’re also seeing demand more recently for plug-in hybrids and self-charging hybrids are becoming quite popular.”

As the UK’s charging infrastructure continues to expand, the percentage of EVs on the fleet is expected to grow further – using the intrinsic flexibility of subscription to enable customers to try electric cars, with the reassurance that they can seamlessly switch back to conventional fuel options if they want.

Chumley added: “Obviously the key with businesses is that it allows them to try to electric – and obviously there’s massive tax advantages for the employer and the employer for going down that route. And then also for their overall environmental policies. So, it allows them to try that with employees, see what works and which doesn’t.”

Mycardirect also complements the wider AAM Group mobility offering – which also includes the BestCarFinder and Onwrd brands, with a combined fleet of over 5,000 vehicles and a one-stop shop for mobility.

Chumley said: “Mycardirect is only one part of the AAM Group. We offer car subscription, car/van rental, traditional car/van leasing, and then of course in our Onwrd brand we offer rental for the corporates so it’s a B2B rental operation, where if you’re a large corporate and you want to a traditional rental broker, for want of a better word, you would deal with ourselves and we would provide you with a vehicle wherever you wanted it.”

For Mycardirect clients, it means that they can even move from subscription to a four-year lease agreement if they want to, providing a seamless solution.

Chumley continued: “And that’s our whole group value; to achieve a complete – without overusing that word – mobility solution. Whether you’re a business or personal client, you can decide how you’d like to go and what journey you’d like to go on.”

Chumley said other factors in the firm’s success were its customer-centric proposition. While the company is fully digitalised, it embraces direct customer contact and says it has a commitment to top-notch customer service that sets it apart.

He summed up: “As I look forward to the next three years, I am very confident that we will continue our upward trajectory, reaching ambitious targets and contributing to the growth of this dynamic industry.”