Carsharing Growing & Tech May Advance Accordingly

According to a new study, “Global Mobility Industry Outlook, 2018,” by research organization Frost & Sullivan, the number of carsharing vehicles is expected to grow 13.2 percent on a global basis in 2018 compared to the number in 2017, from 983,000 vehicles to 1,273,000 vehicles.

The importance of this to the auto industry at large is reflected in the recent announcement of BMW and Daimler that they are merging their carsharing operations, thereby achieving 30 percent of the total market, which makes the combined business the biggest in the space.

According to Geraldine Priya, Mobility Team Lead at Frost & Sullivan, “The highly dynamic market for new mobility solutions is expected to follow an emergent growth paradigm that leverages novel business models, sectoral partnerships and consolidations.”

BMW and Daimler combining their operations is nothing if not novel.

Frost & Sullivan segments the mobility space into seven types:

1. Carsharing

2. Peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing

3. Corporate carsharing

4. Ridesharing

5. Ridehailing

6. Dynamic shuttle/demand responsive transit (DRT)

7. Integrated mobility

These approaches will have an effect on vehicular technology, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Priya: “As business models diversity, we will see substantial investments in electric vehicle and autonomous vehicle pilots.”

Presumably, the scale, which is likely to increase, will make electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles more cost-effective for the producers/consumers.