What is "carsharing"

vb. (present participle of carshare English)

Carsharing or car sharing (US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They are attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day. The organization renting the cars may be a commercial business or the users may be organized as a company, public agency, cooperative, or ad hoc grouping.

Carsharing services are available in over a thousand cities in many nations. Services include Autolib', City Car Club, JustRide GoGet, Greenwheels, JustShareIt, Stadtmobil, Zipcar, GoCar, Zoom, OpenFleet, and City CarShare. Traditional car rental companies have introduced their own car sharing services, including Hertz on Demand, Enterprise CarShare by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Avis On Location by Avis, and Uhaul Car Share by U-Haul. Notable co-operatively owned carsharing organizations include Modo (car co-op) and Community CarShare. Co-Wheels uses a UK community interest company model which it franchises to local groups. In addition, car manufacturers have also introduced their own carsharing services, including Daimler's Car2Go, BMW's DriveNow, Volkswagen's Quicar.

, there were an estimated 1.7 million car-sharing members in 27 countries, including so-called peer-to-peer services, according to the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at U.C. Berkeley. Of these, 800,000 were car-sharing members in the United States. , the world's largest carsharing networks across North America and Europe are Zipcar with 767,000 members and 11,000 vehicles, and Car2Go with over 900,000 members and 12,000 cars.

According to Navigant Consulting, global carsharing services revenue will approach billion in 2013 and grow to billion by 2020, with over 12 million members worldwide. The main factors driving the growth of carsharing are the rising levels of congestion faced by city dwellers; shifting generational mindsets about car ownership; the increasing costs of personal vehicle ownership; and a convergence of business models. Carsharing contributes to sustainable transport because it is a less car intensive means of urban transport, and according to The Economist, carsharing can reduce car ownership at an estimated rate of one rental car replacing 15 owned vehicles.