How Vehicle Subscription Services are Transforming Car Ownership with Jan Hansen 

Jan Hansen is the SVP Growth, B2B & Country Lead USA at FINN – a company that offers all-inclusive monthly car-subscriptions. Jan was among the first employees hired at FINN and was the first operational hire in the company. Jan has a Management degree from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Business and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• How car subscriptions work and how these services are making car ownership more accessible
• How Finn is bringing the car subscription model from Germany to the US market 
• The way car subscription models work from time frames, delivery, insurance, service and more  
• Jan’s perspective on the different marketing tactics that come into play when making a move from the German market to the US market. 

In this episode…

Are car subscription models the way forward for the automotive industry? 

Purchasing a new car can be a complicated process – from choosing the right vehicle, to getting the necessary financing, to purchasing insurance, through to servicing and maintaining the vehicle over time. Car subscription companies are looking to simplify that process by offering customers the opportunity to get their own car with everything already included. 

In this episode of InsideAuto Podcast, Ilana Shabtay speaks with Jan Hansen, SVP Growth at FINN, to discuss the company’s subscription model, the impressive success they have seen in the German market, and their plans to break into the US market this year. The pair discuss how the subscription model has been adapted by the millennial market and how FINN is helping to simplify and take the work out of owning a personal vehicle in the current economic climate. 

Resources Mentioned: 

• Jan Hansen
• Ilana Shabtay on LinkedIn 
• Fullpath 
• FINN 

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Fullpath (formerly AutoLeadStar).

Fullpath is the automotive industry’s leading customer data and experience platform (CDXP).

Fullpath enables dealers to turn their first-party data into lifelong customers by unifying siloed data sources and leveraging that data to create exceptional, hyper-personalized customer experiences.

To learn more, visit www.fullpath.com

Episode Transcript:

Ilana Shabtay:

Ilana Shabtai here, host of Inside Auto podcast, where we interview top dealers, GMs, marketers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in and out of the automotive industry. And before we introduce today’s guest, this episode is sponsored by fullpath.com. Fullpath is automotive industry’s leading customer data and experience platform, CDXP. Full Path enables dealers to turn their first party data into lifelong customers by unifying siloed data sources and leveraging that data to create exceptional, hyper-personalized, customer experiences. To learn more, visit fullpath.com. Today we’re welcoming Jan Hansen to the podcast. How are you Jan?

Jan Hansen:

I’m doing well, how are you?

Ilana Shabtay:

I’m good, thanks for joining.

Jan Hansen:

Thank you very much for having me.

Ilana Shabtay:

Yeah, of course, Jan is among the first hired at Finn. So we’ll introduce what Finn is in a moment. He holds a management degree and a bachelor’s degree and is responsible for a lot of the growth of Finn in Europe and is now focusing on the rollout in the States. So we’ll learn all about the growth of the company, what the company does. We’ll talk a little bit about car subscription models in general. So welcome again to the podcast. Looking forward to getting to know you and Finn.

Jan Hansen:

Absolutely, likewise.

Ilana Shabtay:

Awesome, so before we actually do get started, let’s talk a little bit about what you guys are working on, what challenge you’re solving in the automotive industry, and then I’d also just love to know how you got into automotive in general.

Jan Hansen:

Absolutely. So, FINN, as you already mentioned, is a car subscription platform. We were founded in 2019 in Germany and made the move to the US in 2021, but then really went live beginning of 2022. And so, you just asked for the problem that we’re solving. So, in the end, we observed that buying a car… leasing a car, financing a car is an incredibly tedious process for many people. It involves countless signatures to get financing, to get a lease. You’re always not quite sure whether you’re getting a really good deal right now or not so much of a good deal. You have to, even after getting the car, then look into getting insurance, getting the vehicle delivered, dealing with maintenance, getting the right tires, etc. It’s just a, yeah, I would say not 21st century customer experience for many people. And that’s the problem that we wanted to solve. So with Fin, you can basically shop a car like you can shop shoes on Nike.com. Of course,

Ilana Shabtay:

Pretty cool.

Jan Hansen:

it’s a lot more expensive, but it is a full e-commerce checkout. It takes less than five minutes. The car is delivered to your doorstep. It’s insured. It’s registered. It’s ready to drive. If you have any issues with the car or anything around the car, we are your one point of contact and yeah, that’s, that’s how we make using a car a lot more frictionless and a lot more fun. Hopefully.

Ilana Shabtay:

That’s great. And then I know this has been a huge success in Germany. I’d love to see how this is going to roll out in the States as well. Can you talk a little bit about the segment of people that have been actually signing up? Like, do you feel like it’s specifically millennials or Gen Z or maybe even an older generation? I’m making assumptions here, but I’d love to know what you guys are seeing. 

Jan Hansen:

Yeah absolutely. So we see that the majority of our subscribers are actually in the age group of 30 to 40 years old, right? So 30s to 40s, that’s our exactly, millennials, that’s our target group. So think of, right, so especially in Germany, you spend a lot of time going to university first in a big city, living in a big city while you were there, you were always using public transport. car sharing, ride hailing, all of those methods to get around town. But then, as I said, you enter your 30s, you start having a family, you move to the suburbs, all of a sudden there are no cars to share anymore. You realize it is nice to keep all of your personal belongings in a car that actually is your own. But many of our customers actually never really had. a car before and definitely most of them actually never had a new car before. And so instead of then going through that entire process of where do I go to get a car, what insurance do I need to get, what else do I need around the car, many of our customers just come to us and get a car quickly and remain flexible. That’s also another thing. Our terms typically range from six to 12 months. core terms. Actually in Germany, the majority of our customers sign up for a one year term. And that gives them a lot of flexibility to drive a smaller car now, but maybe when they have plans of starting a family and they need a bigger car, they can react very quickly.

Ilana Shabtay:

And is it a year minimum or do you have even like six month increments or three months increments?

Jan Hansen:

Yeah, so we currently have monthly rentals, so really just month over month auto renewal subscriptions, but those are used by only about 1% of our subscriber base.

Ilana Shabtay:

Okay.

Jan Hansen:

And then the next term is a fixed six month term, a fixed 12 month term, and then we actually even have some cars for 18 or 24 months. But really the majority of our subscribers go for that 12 month term. simply because it offers enough flexibility for the vast majority of people and at the same time it really offers a great value for money.

Ilana Shabtay:

Is there any financial benefit to going like 24 months over 12 months? Does it end up being cheaper for the consumer?

Jan Hansen:

yes, they typically are. Typically, the longer you commit, the cheaper the rates get. Yeah, that is true.

Ilana Shabtay:

And you mentioned you’re the one-stop shop, right? So there’s like customer service within the entire subscription model. Is service included in that monthly fee or is that above what they’re paying, right? So if they do have to service the car, that would be something beyond the monthly subscription.

Jan Hansen:

That’s a great question. So one way to think about a product to really simplify it is, they say, everything included but fuel or electricity, right? So really, anything that you need around the car is included. So yes, that includes insurance, that includes maintenance, that includes your either all season tires or summer and winter tires, that includes the delivery to an address of your choice. Really, everything is included. That is also a big part of our value proposition. We really wanted to get away from an intransparent cost when it comes to using or owning a vehicle. Right? What you see is what you get with FIN. You have that monthly rate. And then, as I said, you need to pay for the fuel or the electricity, but that’s it.

Ilana Shabtay:

And then when it comes to getting the cars, are you guys have these relationships with the OEMs directly in Germany? What kind of relationship, how are you getting the inventory?

Jan Hansen:

Yeah, also a great question. So we work directly with the OEMs, as you just mentioned, right? So we actually spend a lot of time building relationships with the car manufacturers and establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with them. So these customer and customer groups that we are targeting and that we’re actually attracting through our subscriptions, are typically around 10 years younger than the average customer that would go directly to an OEM. Right. And so what we are offering to OEMs is a reliable source of demand with a significantly younger target group. And in exchange, we get these large volume deals with the OEMs. And another thing that separates Fin from actually the majority of our competition is that we order exact vehicles from the OEMs. So you can think of it as we get a certain production volume. We fill that with the configurations and specs that we think are best for our customers. And then we know exactly what cars we are getting, and we’re putting exact vehicles on our website. So let’s say you really want to have the leather seats or you really want to have a good sound system then you can go on our website and you can see does the car that I’m signing up for have these specs that are really important to me and with many other subscription providers you typically you get maybe a guaranteed model or maybe some core specs that are guaranteed but you’re never really sure what exactly is the car going to look like that I’m getting and with finn you can do just that

Ilana Shabtay:

Interesting. And so now that you’re breaking into the US market a bit, I’m sure the OEM relationships look a little bit different. You might have relationships with big dealer groups. I saw somewhere Walzer, we actually work really closely with Walzer, so that’s exciting. What do the relationships look like now that you’re moving into the States? I’d love to know what we should expect to see.

Jan Hansen:

Yeah, so of course, the US market works differently than the German market, right? And you’re absolutely right, we’re working with Walzer, for example, very closely. We’re also working with AutoNation for the remarketing of our vehicles, right? So we’ve already established these very important relationships on the ground here, but at the same time, we’re also in touch directly with the OEMs and… here, especially the relationships that we have from Germany already, help us a lot. So we recently brought live Audis on our website and these Audis, that’s a relationship that we basically were able to establish through a contact in Germany. So we’re definitely benefiting from the relationships that we already have in Germany. But of course, we’re also establishing new relationships here in the US and are looking to offer our customers here. exactly the cars that they want.

Ilana Shabtay:

It’s exciting. I love seeing how the industry, it’s such a dynamic industry. It’s so nice to see all these different platforms come in to play and how consumers are changing and how we’re relating to our cars so differently. I mean, it’s not just subscription models, it’s EVs, it’s Tesla. I mean, we could go on and on. I would love to know from a business perspective, what has been the most exciting thing for you in this journey with Finn, like, or the most challenging, like. I’d love to dig into that a little bit, whether it’s even related to automotive or not. It’s just interesting to hear just sort of like the business perspective and your experience and what’s been really thrilling for you through this process.

Jan Hansen:

Absolutely. So, so Finn, Finn is currently we’re currently around 400 people working at Finn.

Ilana Shabtay:

Wow.

Jan Hansen:

We that distributes around 350 people are in Europe and Germany, and around 50, a little over 50 are US based. And right, Finn’s only been around for a little over four years now. And four years ago, it was a yeah. handful of people sitting together and working on Fynn. And so I think that growth, that growth of the team, but then also that growth with how we approach problems, how we find solutions, also personal growth, right? I’ve learned, I think, more over the past four years than I could have in any other role at any other company. It’s just been super, super exciting too. solve different problems every other month. That I think is really the coolest part of the past four years.

Ilana Shabtay:

Yeah, that’s exciting. And you had a huge part in it, so congratulations. That’s wonderful.

Jan Hansen:

Thank you very much. Yeah, it’s truly and I think that’s what makes it really special in the end, right? The team, the people that I get to work with, that we all get to work with on a daily basis is, yeah, it’s a super special team that we have here.

Ilana Shabtay:

Yeah, that’s amazing. And then what part of your role that I’m focusing a lot on the role in the US, not just because most of the listeners are US based, but also just because I know that’s what you have on your roadmap for the next year or so. Where can we expect to see you find you do you think you’ll be at an ADA, which is the National Automotive Dealer Association Conference in February? Are you guys participating in anything like that? Like, where can we find you this year?

Jan Hansen:

Yeah, great question. So we just recently went to NAFA down in Baltimore, and we’re definitely across the different teams, right? Whether that’s the team responsible for procuring the vehicles or operations team or our demand generating teams. We are definitely present at many of those conferences. So I think it’s very likely you’ll meet us there in February. just for any information, right? You can go to fin.com, f-i-n-n.com. Check out our website. Our LinkedIn, I would say, is definitely worth a follow. We are very, we keep everyone updated there. So that’s some of the best ways to stay in touch with us.

Ilana Shabtay:

That’s great. And then do you think just on that note, are there different mediums that’s been working for you to get to your audience in Germany versus the states? What are you seeing? I’d love to learn a little bit about the difference in reaching your market.

Jan Hansen:

Yeah. So I think that we’ve actually we’ve managed to take a lot of the learnings from Germany to the US. Right. And so especially on the B2C side of our business, right. And then that’s maybe something that we didn’t even mention yet. We sell our subscriptions to both businesses and private customers. Right. And in Germany, our revenues are split pretty evenly about 50 between the two target groups. So really business customers are a big part of what we do in Germany. In the US, we’re still getting things off the ground on the B2B side. But the channels obviously differ significantly how you would reach a business versus how you would reach

Ilana Shabtay:

Yeah.

Jan Hansen:

a B2C customer. On the B2C side, really, we’ve found a lot of success, both in Germany and in the US through performance marketing channels, right? So whether that’s Google ads, so any search engine advertising, or also actually Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram have worked really, really well for us to attract our target group. And that goes back to what we were talking about earlier, right, that millennial target group, 30s to 40s,

Ilana Shabtay:

Yeah.

Jan Hansen:

they’re very good to reach through those channels.

Ilana Shabtay:

Awesome. Okay, great. Anything else before we wanna sign, anything else you wanna tell our listeners before we sign off here. This has been super educational and I’m so excited to learn more about just subscription models in general, how this is actually gonna play out and affect OEMs, dealerships. I mean, there’s just, there’s so much that’s waiting for us in the industry. So I’m looking forward to seeing what’s gonna come with the impact of subscription models. But any last thoughts before we sign off here?

Jan Hansen:

Yeah, so I agree. It’s a super exciting time. I think it’s a super exciting time for also consumers to choose what basically way to get a car works best for me, right? I would not say subscriptions are necessarily for everyone, but I would encourage everyone to have a look at subscription, have a look at really also the true total cost of ownership that you have on your vehicle. Many people underestimate how much money actually it costs to own or use a car next to your monthly payment for the vehicle itself. Yeah, check out finn.com. We have a lot of resources on there. We are currently available in 12 states in the northeast, but over the next months we will expand also to other states, more to the south and actually then also to the west coast.

Ilana Shabtay:

That’s great. Well, if they

Jan Hansen:

Check out finn.com

Ilana Shabtay:

follow you on LinkedIn,

Jan Hansen:

and

Ilana Shabtay:

Awesome.

Jan Hansen:

yeah, exactly.

Ilana Shabtay:

And I am sure we’ll get those updates on LinkedIn, like you said.

Jan Hansen:

Exactly. We’ll keep everyone posted.

Ilana Shabtay:

Awesome. Yan, thank you so much for joining us and you are doing great work. I’m really happy that you shared it with us today. And for all the listeners, please tune in if you like this episode inside autopodcast.com. Thank you so much.

Jan Hansen:

Thank you very much, Ilana.