It's a Jeep thing, at least that's what they say. In 2019, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles trialed a few different car-sharing subscription services. Those trials must have gone well because the automaker appears to be putting the pieces in place to launch such a service on a larger scale.
First spotted by CarBuzz, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles filed for a trademark on the term "My Freedom" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 17.
The trademark filing details that My Freedom is to be used to describe motor vehicle subscription services, mainly providing temporary use of a motor vehicle to members for their personal use.
In other words, a car-sharing subscription service.
The filing is currently said to be live and pending and will be assigned to an examining attorney approximately three months after its filing date.
Jeep's announcement last year called for the brand to test three different vehicle-sharing programs based in Boston. The first was a car-sharing service with a group of 100 Jeep owners. A peer-to-peer program, the beta was set to operate with Turo and allow owners to rent out their Jeeps to other people.
A second pilot was a subscription plan in which FCA offered three-month subscriptions that allowed subscribers to swap between FCA vehicles. Whether someone wanted a Dodge Challenger or Ram 1500, the world was their oyster. No time table was given for when the program would run in 2019.
FCA also tested a car borrowing program as it partnered with rental car company Avis. Jeep owners in Boston were able to purchase six "Jeep Coins" that entitled them to one-day rentals of most FCA vehicles. Each coin was said to be good for a year.
Motor Authority has reached out to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for comment and will update this post when we hear back.
To date, most mainstream automakers have kept their distance from car-sharing services and left it up to the luxury automakers to test the waters. General Motors was the exception, but it significantly scaled back its plans with Maven in 2019.
