Frost & Sullivan’s view of car sharing

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New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, ‘Sustainable and Innovative Personal Transport Solutions - Strategic Analysis of Car sharing Market in Europe’, finds that the market earned revenues of US$293 million in 2009 and estimates this to reach nearly US$9.5 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 introduction of these innovative services and increasing commercialisation, car sharing is expected to garner more than 5.5 million members sharing around 77,000 vehicles in Europe by 2016," predicts Aswin Kumar, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan's Automotive & Transportation Group.

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Vehicle Manufacturers (VMs) are bracing themselves for the inevitable threat presented by car sharing schemes 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 an estimated revenue potential of more than US$3.5 2.6 billion by 2016 and the potential to replace more than one 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," argues Kumar. 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.

http://www.itsinternational.com/news/article.cfm?recordID=17107

[Don Caballero]

1. Only one car should be allowed per household.

I am a bike commuter and I constantly encourage others to take it up. It takes a special kind of person to ride a bike everywhere. One thousand bike commuters is equal to one person who drives a car everywhere carbon polluting wise.

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2. My hope is for biking to be more common among average people.

Myself, I favor increasing fuel tax, not telling people how many cars they can own.