Car sharing is set to soar over the next six years as the population swells and clusters increasingly in urban centres, new research suggests.
A new report from global market analysis firm, Frost & Sullivan, says that car sharing and flexible car hire such as car clubs are set to gain popularity and predicts that by 2016, 5.5 million Europeans will be sharing around 77,000 vehicles.
The report entitiled: ‘Sustainable and Innovative Personal Transport Solutions – Strategic Analysis of Car sharing Market in Europe’ shows that in 2009, the car sharing market earned revenues of €217.00 million Euros, protracted to grow to €7 billion by 2020 mainly due to the emergence of new initiatives such as integrated mobility solutions, cars-on-demand, peer-to-peer car sharing, and the consumer trend towards low carbon mobility.
The growing market for flexible car hire will also prove instrumental to the growth and acceptance of electric vehicles, the firm predicts.
It is estimated that from 2012, one in three new vehicle added to car sharing fleets in Europe will be a battery operated electric vehicle (EV), while by 2016, one in five car sharing vehicles will be a battery operated EV.
One example of this forthcoming demand for flexible car use is Paris Autolib’ scheme, in which the French Government is spearheading crucial federal-level support for car sharing schemes and is one of the major proposals for integrating EVs in car sharing.
Vehicle Manufacturers (VMs) are bracing themselves for the inevitable threat presented by car sharing schemes over individual car ownership; by transforming themselves into service providers offering integrated mobility solutions. Major VMs like Peugeot and Daimler are unveiling integrated mobility on-demand solutions and using car sharing both as a branding exercise and also to determine consumer perceptions and attitudes towards their vehicles.
Car sharing has the potential to replace more than 1 million vehicles by 2016 in Europe alone.
"With the integration of EVs and carpooling services into the market, the market is expected to transform as a key sustainable mobility solution for European consumers," says Aswin Kumar, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan’s Automotive & Transportation Group.
France and the United Kingdom will likely be the high growth markets thanks to efficient mobility management solutions and strong federal support in mainstreaming car sharing services.
"New services, new target groups, integration with other operators and solutions, innovative marketing strategies using Web2.0 and geographic diversity are likely to provide major competitive edge and are necessary to ensure that car sharing does not remain only as an urban niche phenomenon," concludes Kumar.
