Shared Mobility 2023: these trends are shaping the industry

Which trends will move the needle for the mobility industry in the coming year? How will technology contribute to new solutions for transport? Against the backdrop of these questions, the shared mobility experts at Invers have identified five trends:

(1) The market for carsharing will grow by at least 20 percent.

(2) More focus on profitability.

(3) More offers with longer rental periods.

(4) Shared mobility will become even more sustainable.

(5) Cities and project developers have recognized the potential of carsharing.

Siegen, December 28^th, 2022 – Achieving climate targets, transformation of transport, and the goal of car-free inner cities are just a few examples of current challenges that require innovative mobility solutions. The following five trends will move the industry in the coming year:

1. The market for carsharing will grow by at least 20 percent.

For 2022, the German Car-Sharing Association has identified more than 3.4 million customers, which is approximately 18 percent more than in the previous year. The figure demonstrates consistent growth in the market and reflects the plans of numerous shared mobility operators: “Many customers are talking to us about expansion plans,” says Bharath Devanathan, Chief Business Officer at Invers. “We expect the car-sharing market to grow by at least 20 percent in the coming year.” Expansion plans are also evident in recent market developments such as Miles’ acquisition of WeShare and Stellantis/Free2Move’s acquisition of ShareNow.

2. More focus on profitability.

At the same time, the pressure on operators to become profitable is increasing. In the shared micromobility market, operators are expected to further withdraw from less profitable cities to focus on lucrative markets instead. Examples include Bird’s withdrawal from Europe and GoSharing’s withdrawal from Saarbrücken.

To increase profitability, some carsharing operators are outsourcing large-scale operational tasks to specialized service providers such as Carbio GmbH, which can realize economies of scale. Others are focusing on increasing vehicle utilization by offering vehicles on MaaS platforms or in complementary business models, for example corporate carsharing during the week and peer-to-peer carsharing on the weekend. New concepts for fleet sharing and unifying APIs are going to support this approach.

3. More offers with longer rental periods.

The still young trend toward car subscriptions is continuing. Operators of mobility services are thus tapping into new customer segments. Approximately 100,000 to 130,000 car subscription contracts were concluded in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK in 2020, according to the industry experts at Berylls in their study “Snapshot of the European Auto Subscription Market”. The CAR Institute assumes that there will already be between two and four million subscriptions in 2030. Traditional carsharing providers such as MILES or Hiyacar are going beyond short-term rentals and addressing the long-term market, as are traditional leasing providers and car rental companies, for example Sixt or Wheego. They are also addressing new customer segments and countering the resulting risk by monitoring vehicle usage data and terminating access to the vehicle if necessary.

4. Shared Mobility becomes even more sustainable.

In principle, car sharing is already more sustainable than using private vehicles because the individual car is used more efficiently, and the number of vehicles required for mobility services is reduced in the long term. In addition, the carsharing services of numerous operators will be increasingly electric. The French provider Virtuo, for example, plans to electrify half of its fleet by 2025. In Hamburg, carsharing companies Miles, ShareNow, Sixt and WeShare have agreed to increase the proportion of electric vehicles in their fleets to at least 80 percent by the turn of the year 2023/24.

5. Cities and project developers have recognized the potential of car sharing.

The idea of shared mobility is also gaining importance in residential construction: numerous developers are integrating shared mobility solutions into their offerings. By providing shared vehicles in their buildings, developers can save costs by reducing the number of parking spaces they’re required to provide. This trend is particularly evident in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. In addition, some cities and municipalities are promoting sharing concepts through more carsharing-friendly policies, especially with regard to parking fees. Hamburg’s success with carsharing and Berlin’s turnaround are examples for other cities to follow suit. In many cases, they are linking these policies to the promotion of electromobility. Cologne, Hamburg and Munich already offer free parking for e-vehicles, which should further accelerate the trend toward pure e-vehicle fleets in these cities.