Users of car sharing schemes

There is currently no official EU-level data on car sharing. In 2018, the EU (via Eurobarometer) carried out a survey to identify citizens’ perceptions, attitudes and practices in relation to the collaborative economy. This survey asked about the use of used a collaborative platform for transport, such as car sharing schemes. As shown in Figure 1, almost half of respondents to the survey indicated to have used a collaborative platform for transport. Responses varied significantly across Member States, from above 80% in Lithuania to 20% in Hungary. 

Since this assessment is based on surveyed data, monitor trends on the sharing economy, in particular on the uptake of car sharing schemes will need to monitor the actual use of such schemes, considering both formal and informal sharing schemes.

Other datasets provide complementary, factual yet limited data. There are statistics on employment and turnover in car leasing and rental activities, whose scope goes beyond just sharing schemes. There are data on car ownership and the use of public transport, which although seem to be highly driven by car prices and public transport price rather than the growth of the sharing economy.

Car sharing is an example of circularity measures that helps moving from an ownership model to a service model. This allows providing a service with reduced resource consumption. Car sharing 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 grow1. Typically, cars are owned, and households have at least one owned car, which often is only partially used. Car sharing schemes enable cars to be used more efficiently and reduce also the number of cars that are being purchased. Research has also shown more benefits of car sharing: reductions of mileage, reduced land occupation due to less parking needs, etc2. All these benefits lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, resource use and waste generation. Currently there is no legislation or targets directly related to the car sharing.