Insights Interview on Station-Based Car Sharing with Stadtmobil Stuttgart

The European car sharing market is complex, featuring a diverse range of business models implemented on the streets. Operators employ various strategies, such as station-based services, peer-to-peer car sharing, and free-floating services, to address different use cases with distinct service. In addition, the European car sharing market is one of the largest and the most complex in the world. To address and explain some of these complexities, INVERS publishes their INVERS Mobility Barometer on “European Car Sharing 2025”. This 76-page report helps car sharing operators quickly understand key market dynamics, insights, and trends.

Table of Contents

• Growth enablers
• Fleet electrification
• Partnering with cities and municipalities
• What makes a great car sharing station?

How has Stadtmobil Stuttgart enabled its growth over the past few years?

Stadtmobil Stuttgart has had a good run thanks to its close collaboration with the city of Stuttgart and bordering municipalities, that have utilized public parking space tenders. The car sharing law has played a significant role in ensuring that we can maintain visible and easily accessible parking spaces. To expand our business, we rely on good parking spaces, especially in the city centers, as this is the limiting factor. With the help of our affiliate StadtMobil e.V., which focuses on specific rural areas around Stuttgart, we have also experienced considerable growth in the surrounding areas. It is important to us that we always maintain a good balance between availability and utilization. Only then is car sharing profitable for us and attractive for our customers.

The European car sharing fleet is much more electrified than the privately owned car fleet. What needs to be done to accelerate the electrification of car sharing even further?

Cities must help provide suitable infrastructure, as we as car sharing providers can only do so to a limited extent. Higher vehicle acquisition costs, expensive charging infrastructure, and the prevalent customer reluctance to embrace the new technology are hindering the proportion of fully electric vehicles in our fleet.

How do you work with cities and governments? How would you describe your relationship with city administrations and regional partners?

The cooperation, especially with the city of Stuttgart, is excellent. This enables us to provide suitable public parking stations for our customers in Stuttgart’s city center. Our suggestions are listened to and largely incorporated into the city’s planning process. We are grateful for this, as this is not something to be taken for granted. Of course, things are also going well with other cities, but decisions often take a long time because, unfortunately, there is still no standardized approach, and the processes must be developed first. We believe that car sharing standardizations or respective guidelines for cities and municipalities would be highly desirable for all partners.

What makes a great car sharing station? What data can you use to choose the best spots?

An optimal car sharing station should be well connected to public transport. This makes it easy for our customers to transfer from bus or train to a car sharing vehicle. It should also be above ground and signposted, so it’s clear and easily visible that a service is available locally, even if there aren’t any cars. The more densely populated the area and the better the public transport system, the higher the likelihood that the location will be well-received. Furthermore, several vehicles should always be located at a station to present an attractive service with a variety of choices and sufficient availability. Having just one vehicle is often a deterrent. Therefore, we always strive to set up several vehicles at any promising location as soon as possible.

Further insights into the European car sharing market

Thank you, Hermann, for sharing your expert insights.

For more information and interesting findings about European car sharing, we encourage readers to check out our 76-page INVERS Mobility Barometer on “European Car Sharing 2025” with more expert interviews as well as insights from national car sharing associations. To discover more from Stadtmobil Stuttgart, please visit their website.