The UK Franchise Growth Index
Green Motion
Green Motion is a car and van rental brand established in the United Kingdom in 2007 by Richard Lowden. Its original proposition centred on lower CO2 vehicle rental, offering leisure and business customers access to vehicles selected with environmental impact and fuel economy in mind. The first UK franchise opened in Leicester in the year the business began.
The Five Fibre score measures this network against Twine Growth's Five Fibre Framework™ using the information available at the assessment date. It is not an endorsement, a financial recommendation or a recommendation to purchase a franchise.
About the network
More about Green Motion.
The network developed through franchising in the UK before expanding internationally. A company announcement marking its tenth anniversary records its first overseas master franchise in Mexico in 2010, followed by expansion into markets including Italy, Greece and Iceland. UK airport operations have formed part of its development, with Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester among the locations identified in that account.
The British Franchise Association describes a premises based rental business that can be operated with a hands on owner or through a team led by the franchisee. Owners need to understand customer facing rental work as well as the management of employees and local business development. The format therefore combines the use of a recognised rental brand with responsibility for running an individual operation.
Published UK franchise information describes initial practical and classroom training, covering retail management, sales and operational experience. It also identifies continuing support delivered both at the branch and remotely. These descriptions explain the established support model; older published fees and network totals should be distinguished from the terms and footprint of a current opportunity.
Customer service development has continued across the UK network. In March 2025, training provider Performance in People described a relationship with Green Motion dating from 2022, including manager sales workshops, mystery shopping and assessment of customer calls. That programme provides a documented example of the franchisor using external training and measurement to improve consistency across independently operated branches.
At a glance
Green Motion at a glance.
- Industry
- Automotive
- Franchise category
- Rental and Leasing
- Sub industry
- Vehicle Rental
- Founded
- 2007
- Franchising started
- 2007
- Approximate locations
- 38
- Headquarters
- Woburn
- BFA member
- Yes
- UK origin
- Yes
- International brand
- Yes
- Recruitment status
- Active
Investment
Franchise investment.
- Investment from
- £42,500
- Management franchise
- Yes
- Retail premises
- Yes
- Executive franchise
- Yes
- Master franchise available
- Yes
Investment figures change. Confirm current requirements directly with the franchise network before making any decision.
Five Fibre assessment
How the foundations score.
Every franchise network is assessed across the five connected areas Twine Growth believes support sustainable franchise growth.
How the Five Fibre score is calculated
Assess: Current UK franchise activity and named operators evidence a replicated rental business. Current representative net profits and fully reconciled entry economics remain unverified.
- Profitable core business: Partially, 2.5/5. Current UK opening announcements and an independent multi-location operator support real trade. Reported network turnover and fleet size do not establish typical current owner net profit.
- Operates for 30 days without daily founder input: Partially, 2.5/5. A UK master structure, named management and independent operators indicate delegation. A verified successful month without the founder's daily involvement was not established.
- Ideal franchise owner defined: Yes, 3/3. UK recruitment profiles seek motivated business operators and distinguish hands-on and management-led models. International master requirements are not automatically assigned to a UK branch applicant.
- Realistic owner money: Partially, 2/4. Fleet, distribution and business-planning support make the commercial model identifiable. Conflicting investment figures and no representative inspected net accounts limit confidence about current owner returns.
- Different opportunity: Yes, 3/3. Environmental positioning, central rental distribution and local independent operation define a specific proposition. Provider claims of environmental leadership are not a verified comparative assessment.
Build: Training, rental systems and a support organisation are described. Complete current UK documentation and one comprehensive resource hub remain uninspected.
- Documented operating playbook: Partially, 2.5/5. Published UK material describes standard rental processes, system-generated agreements and operational instruction. The complete current UK manual and revision controls were not inspected; overseas disclosure manuals are excluded as UK proof.
- Structured onboarding: Yes, 4/4. BFA describes practical initial training and continuing support, and a named Liverpool owner corroborates head-office tuition and branch experience. Published durations differ and the exact current syllabus remains uninspected.
- Documented brand experience: Partially, 2/4. UK material identifies environmental standards and common customer-service learning. Complete current branch standards and their implementation across the network were not verified.
- One central resource location: Partially, 1.5/3. Wheels and GreenRes are named in different public profiles, supporting shared operational tools. One current UK hub containing all manuals, brand assets and learning was not established.
- Launch without constant founder involvement: Yes, 4/4. Management-led training, existing-branch experience and operational-team assistance provide launch support beyond a founder alone. Current UK management and independently run branches corroborate a distributed structure.
Launch: Active UK recruitment is corroborated despite access restrictions on the official websites. Costs and the complete current discovery route remain less clear.
- Clear franchise proposition: Yes, 5/5. UK profiles explain local car-rental ownership, fleet access and central support. Recent UK exhibition participation corroborates an active ownership proposition rather than customer or employee recruitment alone.
- Targeted applicant attraction: Yes, 4/4. UK industry material addresses ambitious business operators seeking airport or city rental opportunities. A different international master audience is kept separate.
- Ownership enquiry journey: Partially, 2/4. BFA offers a dedicated franchise-information form and current public posts invite franchise discussions. Direct official pages returned access errors, preventing verification of the full official applicant journey. No enquiry was submitted.
- Pre-acceptance discovery: Partially, 2/4. Public UK material describes pre-opening business and finance planning. A complete current mandatory screening, discovery, financial validation and acceptance sequence was not verified.
- Ownership go-to-market plan: Partially, 1.5/3. UK exhibition activity and industry recruitment pages show coordinated promotion. The current integrated recruitment plan, budget, conversion stages and review are not public evidence here.
Grow: A professional UK team and current recruitment activity are visible. Applicant measurement and a current forward territory plan remain largely unverified.
- Monthly ownership enquiries: No public verification, 0/5. Exhibition conversations and recent openings do not establish consistent qualified franchise enquiries every month. No current monthly series was located.
- Enquiry sources and best prospects: No public verification, 0/4. Channels are visible, but ownership source attribution linked to candidate quality was not verified. Rental-customer data is a different funnel.
- Ownership conversion: No public verification, 0/4. No current ownership enquiry denominator and signed-owner conversion measure were located. Rental bookings, branches and fleet utilisation do not establish it.
- Next territories: Partially, 1.5/3. UK profiles identify airport and city expansion and older named openings. A current prioritised available-territory map was not verified; Leeds appearing in older lists cannot mean it remains vacant after the recent opening.
- Recruit beyond founder network: Yes, 4/4. Named UK management, direct exhibition conversations and third-party recruitment channels support a recruitment function beyond the original founder. Current conversion and monthly continuity remain separate unverified measures.
Amplify: Rental distribution and independent local customer routes are evidenced. Complete owner coverage, current local plans and commercial reporting remain partly verified.
- Local customer acquisition support: Yes, 5/5. Published UK material describes central distribution, marketing and bookable customer channels. Blue Citi Evolution independently identifies its Green Motion franchise operation and local booking routes.
- Every owner represented online: Partially, 2/4. The independent operator lists four locations with booking access. No complete current UK legal-owner-to-location reconciliation was established; several sites may belong to one operator.
- Continuing local marketing plan: Partially, 2/4. Ongoing marketing and distribution support are described. A current branch-specific plan, budgets and delivery across every UK owner were not verified.
- Individual owner enquiry and performance tracking: Partially, 1.5/3. Public system descriptions cover utilisation, customer and rental records. Current owner-level source attribution, conversion and net commercial review outputs were not inspected.
- Customers beyond personal networks: Yes, 4/4. Central rental distribution, airport/city discovery and independent operator booking links provide routes beyond personal contacts. Actual booking conversion, lead volumes and owner returns were not tested.
Green Motion scores 62/100, Growth Ready, from an unrounded weighted total of 61.5/100. Launch and Amplify tie at 14.5/20, with Launch first in framework order, and Grow is weakest at 5.5/20. Priority 1, Grow: verify current ownership enquiry volumes, source quality and conversion, and reconcile available UK territories against new openings. Priority 2, Assess: reconcile current investment and fleet obligations and establish representative owner net economics and delegation. Priority 3, Build: verify the current UK playbook, service standards, system versions and resource access. Priorities follow the lowest fibre scores. Public evidence gaps are not proof of missing internal capability or an investment recommendation.
Research date: 4 November 2026. Scope is the UK Green Motion branch-franchise network. Global master-country rights, US disclosures and the associated U-Save brand are distinct. Their fees, standards, counts and openings are not automatically transferred to UK Green Motion operators. Car-rental customer enquiries are separate from ownership enquiries.
Current evidence supports continuing UK franchise activity. Green Motion UK's public LinkedIn posts describe franchise conversations at the 2026 National Franchise Exhibition. Recent indexed brand posts announce Leeds Bradford Airport with owners Gavan Duffy and Claire Jones, alongside named UK management. Relative post ages differ between indexed and opened snapshots, so a precise opening date is not inferred. U-Save Edinburgh posts concern a different brand and are not counted as Green Motion openings.
The UK site's indexed legal footer identifies Green Motion Car and Van Rental Limited, 08125058, as the UK master franchise holder, with locations operating under its agreements. Companies House records that entity as Active, incorporated on 29 June 2012. Green Motion Limited, 08449994, and Green Motion International Limited, 06657093, are separate entities in the public record. Those legal dates do not supersede the brand's reported 2007 trading origin. No private agreement was inspected to establish the exact entity that would contract with a new applicant.
Direct checks of the international homepage and franchise page and the UK homepage returned 403 access restrictions. The UK /franchise address could not be retrieved. These are retrieval limits, not proof that the sites are unavailable to ordinary customers. Indexed official content, public corporate records, trade profiles and an independent operator were used alongside those limits. No enquiry was sent, meeting booked or private system accessed.
Age matters materially. BFA's profile still says 15 UK locations and an opening expected in autumn 2016. Another industry profile gives 21 branches and reported network turnover above £12 million without a current financial period. Global brand descriptions cite 700-plus locations in 80-plus countries. These are not a current UK-only owner count. Blue Citi Evolution describes four UK locations under one franchise operator, illustrating why sites and owners differ. No new network count is inferred and existing metadata remains unchanged.
Published costs conflict. BFA gives £42,500 startup guidance. Find My Franchise lists £34,000 minimum and £39,500 franchise fee, while Whichfranchise gives £39,500 minimum. Franchise UK shows £60,000 and discusses master-country arrangements. An older Point Franchise article distinguishes £70,000 minimum, £140,000 total and a £39,500 fee. These labels, dates and scopes are not equivalent. Current fleet financing, insurance, premises, working capital, ongoing charges and VAT inclusions require reconciliation. Reported turnover and promises of profitability do not establish current representative owner net return.
Training has specific public support. BFA describes a week including practical experience, while the Liverpool owner account describes three head-office days plus time at existing locations. That is corroboration of structured preparation, not proof of a universal unchanged duration. Public descriptions of Wheels and GreenRes establish systems by name but do not prove every branch currently uses the same version or a unified resource hub. A US disclosure describing training in Woburn is still a US contract source and is excluded as proof of UK contractual requirements.
The independent Blue Citi Evolution site explicitly identifies its UK Green Motion franchise agreement and operating locations at Central London, London City Airport, Luton Airport and Birmingham International. It offers corporate contact and booking links. This is useful first-party operator evidence beyond recruitment marketing, but not a financial audit, verification of all location data or proof of every owner's online coverage. No rental was booked or payment entered.
Central rental-distribution channels and local customer systems support Amplify credit, but customer transactions cannot establish ownership source quality or applicant conversion. Older claims of dozens of distribution channels and protected territories need current verification. Older lists naming Leeds as available should not override evidence of its recent opening. Environmental leadership, award and market-ranking language remains attributed positioning rather than independently certified comparative performance.
The original Twine Index is excluded as independent corroboration. Only authorised sources, scores, rationales, total formula, overall review and date change. Publishing status, recruitment status, description, investment, names, dates and counts remain preserved, with discrepancies recorded for separately authorised correction.
Benchmark
How this network compares.
Sources
Research sources.
16 public sources used for this profile
- https://greenmotion.com/franchise
- https://greenmotion.com/news/ceo-of-green-motion-richard-lowden-comments-on-new-car-hire-regulations-coming-into-force-following-review-by-regulators
- https://greenmotion.co.uk/long-term-hire
- https://www.thebfa.org/franchisors/green-motion-car-and-van-rental/
- https://www.findmyfranchise.co.uk/listing/green-motion-car-rental/
- https://www.franchiseinfo.co.uk/franchise/green-motion-car-rental/
- https://www.franchise-uk.co.uk/franchise/green-motion-vehicle-rental-franchise/
- https://www.pointfranchise.co.uk/article-3-things-you-didn-t-know-about-green-motion-car-rental
- https://www.what-franchise.com/franchise-opportunities/travel-franchises/green-motion
- https://www.franchiseinfo.co.uk/news/putting-plans-in-motion-becoming-a-car-hire-franchise-owner/
- https://uk.linkedin.com/company/green-motion-uk
- https://uk.linkedin.com/company/green-motion
- https://www.bluecitievolution.com/
- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08125058
- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08449994
- https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06657093
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