Car rental service Europcar has launched an app for iOS, created by SapientNitro. The app is a completely redesigned update on Europcars previous app – which just acted as a launcher to display the content of the mobile portal via webview. It adds the ability to store data, reservations and rental preferences in the app; pre-payment functions; and GPS-based localisation of rental stations, and of the car itself while travelling.

“With this new version of our iPhone app, were offering our customers recognisable added value, in every possible sense,” says Jehan de The, group eCommerce director at Europcar. “On the one hand, we have expanded and improved upon the procedures relating to reserving a rental car; this makes booking via a mobile phone considerably more easy and convenient. On the other hand, the app contains numerous other functions that make it a very practical travelling companion”.

SapientNitro installed a mobile middleware functioning as a connecting layer between the app and the booking back end, and also overhauled Europcars mobile portal. An Android app will be made available in the near future, the company says.