Number cars in car sharing schemes

Car sharing companies are increasingly investing in the fleet indicating a correspondingly increasing interest by users in this circular business model.

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There is currently no EU-level data on car sharing. However, in recent years several countries have started to gather data such as Italy, Belgium, Sweden, and Germany. As shown above, the number of shared cars per 1,000 people increased between 2010-2021. The largest increase in the number of shared cars per 1,000 people is in Germany, with a 460% increase between 2010 and 2021.

The exact reasons for the increased uptake of carsharing in European countries are difficult to identify, but for example the transition from local initiatives to app-based schemes has improved the ease-of-use and thus consumer acceptance and scalability of such services. Besides that, policies play an important role in the uptake of car sharing - for service providers and for users of car sharing services. For example, support at municipality level can include providing dedicated parking spots or mobility hubs. From a technology perspective, the emergence of advanced technologies can stimulate the adoption of car sharing models in Europe. The accessibility to electric vehicles might be an additional reason for some users to use car sharing services. This increased uptake of carsharing is not only reflected in the number of shared cars per 1,000 inhabitants, but is also confirmed by the increasing number of members of car sharing schemes.

Different types of business models for car sharing exist such as cooperative, business-to-consumer roundtrip and one-way, as well as peer-to-peer carsharing (Münzel et al., 2018). Therefore, we note that there are different definitions of car sharing which results in heterogeneous data collection.

Car sharing is an example of a circularity measure that facilitates transitioning from an ownership model to a service model and is one of the best-known examples of the sharing economy, which has emerged as a way to reduce the environmental impact and costs of using products, whilst maintaining (or increasing) accessibility.

In 2020, the passenger car fleet of the EU Member States reached 250 million, and it continues to grow. Most cars are owned, and many households have at least one privately owned car, which typically is only partially used. Sharing schemes enable cars to be used more efficiently and should also reduce the number of cars that are being produced. Car sharing can help to reduce the impact of car transport by increasing the occupancy rate of the car or accelerating the uptake of newer, more fuel-efficient cars. It is beneficial to create a shift from private car use to collaborative car use, but it is very important to avoid attracting users of public transport, bike users or pedestrians towards car sharing transport options.

Previous research has proved some of these benefits of car sharing: reductions of mileage, reduced land occupation due to less parking needs, etc. Research also suggests that car sharing has contributed to a smaller car fleet. Furthermore, it is estimated that households who engage in car sharing travel less far, the average distance travelled by households with a shared car is less than half of the average kilometres travelled by households with a privately owned car (Schreier, 2018). A more recent study in Germany from Kolleck (2021) found that one station-based shared car replaces nine privately owned cars. However, there is no significant link between free-floating shared cars and private cars. It might be that shared cars are added to the car fleet in a country and considered as complementary cars.

Literature

Münzel, K., Boon, W., Frenken, K., & Vaskelainen, T. (2018). Carsharing business models in Germany: characteristics, success and future prospects. Information Systems and e-Business Management, 16, 271-291.

Schreier, H., Grimm, C., Kurz, U., Schwieger, D. B., Keßler, S., & Möser, D. G. (2018). Analysis of the impacts of car-sharing in Bremen. Germany, Final Report, EU.

Kolleck, A. (2021). Does car-sharing reduce car ownership? Empirical evidence from Germany. Sustainability, 13(13), 7384.

Amatuni, L., Ottelin, J., Steubing, B., & Mogollón, J. M. (2020). Does car sharing reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Assessing the modal shift and lifetime shift rebound effects from a life cycle perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 266, 121869.

Pauliuk, S., Heeren, N., Berrill, P., Fishman, T., Nistad, A., Tu, Q., Wolfram, P., & Hertwich, E. G. (2021). Global scenarios of resource and emission savings from material efficiency in residential buildings and cars. Nature communications, 12(1), 5097.

Loose, W., 2010. The State of European Car-Sharing, Final Rep. D 2.4 Work Package 2 momo Car-Sharing, http://www.eltis.org/sites/default/files/tool/the_state_of_carsharing_europe.pdf (accessed 30/11/2023).

Definition

Number of cars in car sharing schemes in Italy, Belgium, Sweden, and Germany between 2010-2021.

Methodology

Italy: The Italian Sharing Mobility Network collects data from members (operators, municipalities, research institutions and NGOs) as well as from non-members of the Network via an annual questionnaire. Data are provided on a voluntary basis.

Belgium: 14 car sharing organizations supplied data to Autodelen.net, a non-profit organization aiming to increase car sharing in Belgium. Autodelen.net reported this data in their latest annual report from 2021.

Sweden: The figures are based on data from the member pools in Bilcoop, as well as from Moveabout, SAMBIL and Sunfleet. The data is extracted from the national indicators of Miljobarometern.

Germany: The CarSharing statistics for Germany are based on the key figures that the Bundesverband CarSharing eV (bcs) requests from all CarSharing providers in Germany on the key date of January 1 of each year. The data is extracted from the Bundersverband CarSharing website.

Since this assessment is based on voluntary collection of data by organizations in member states, future collaboration with these organizations will be necessary to obtain similar data in the future. Furthermore, collaboration with organizations in other Member States should also be encouraged. Belgium only started to collect data from 2018 onwards and Italy from 2015 onwards about the number of cars and from 2021 about the number of members. This increased data collection points to the increasing importance of car sharing in the economy. For Germany, data is available until 2023 but not for the other countries, and further action would be needed to improve the frequency of data collection and reporting.

Metadata

Sources:

o Italy: Italian Sharing Mobility Network. (2022). https://osservatoriosharingmobility.it/

o Belgium: Yearly report car sharing. (2021).https://www.autodelen.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jaarrapport-autodelen-2021_gepubliceerd-op-20-januari-2022.pdf

o Sweden: Number of car pool members/users. (2019). https://2030.miljobarometern.se/nationella-indikatorer/beteendet/bilpooler-b3h/medlemmar-anvandare/

o Germany: Bundersverband car sharing. (2023). https://carsharing.de/alles-ueber-carsharing/carsharing-zahlen/aktuelle-zahlen-fakten-zum-carsharing-deutschland

Unit: Number of cars per 1,000 people.

Temporal coverage: 2010-2021.

Geographic coverage: Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Germany

Number cars in car sharing schemes

References and footnotes