The company was founded as Collect Car B.V. on 21 June 1995 by Gijs van Lookeren Campagne and Jan Borghuis, who were inspired by car sharing by German students in the 1980s.

The car sharing firm received a financial boost by Dutch entrepreneur Eckart Wintzen[6] in 1997.

In April 2013 it was announced that a consortium consisting of the Volkswagen Financial Services AG and the Dutch VW importer Pon Holdings B.V. acquired an unspecified amount of shares in CollectCar B.V..They became sole owners in 2015.

[8] Greenwheels has extensive locations in mostly urban centres in the Netherlands.

Greenwheels fleet consists of subcompact (supermini or city car) or compact (compact MPV, leisure vehicles) that are better able to handle the narrow and congested streets found in European cities.