Financial Times (FT.Com) By Mark Wembridge 12 December 2011

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the entrepreneur behind 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.

The Car Club, which will be UK-based, will operate alongside Sir Stelios's EasyCar online vehicle hire company, and is partially funded by Profounders Capital, a private investment firm, although no financial details of the deal were released.

The Car Club is scheduled for a test launch in spring 2012. The business model differs from other short-term 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, who owns EasyGroup and licenses the "easy" name to businesses including EasyHotel, 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," Sir Stelios said:

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

Following the investment, Mr Hoberman and Rogan Angelini-Hurll, partner at Profounders, will join the EasyCar board.

At Zipcar - which last year bought Streetcar for $50m (£32m) - rentals include fuel, insurance and a limited number of miles. Annual memberships cost £59.95 and prices start at £5 per hour or £49 for a day depending on the vehicle.

Zipcar, founded in 2000 and based in Massachusetts, became a publicly listed company in April after selling 9.5m shares at $18 each, and the price of its shares jumped 56 per cent in its first day of trading. They have recently fallen back from highs above $30 and now trade around $15 per share.