Skip to main content

Corporate car sharing fleets set to reach 85,000 vehicles in 2020

A recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan estimates the number of vehicles in car sharing fleets to stand at around 2,000 in 2013 and forecasts that by 2020 there could be between 75,000 and 100,000 of such vehicles in operation, as providers such as OEMs, leasing arms, rental companies, car sharing organisations (CSOs) and technology providers continually enter the market and expand geographically with competing solutions. With more than half of European automobile sales now accounted for by fleet sales, set
February 24, 2014 Read time: 4 mins
A recent analysis from 2097 Frost & Sullivan estimates the number of vehicles in car sharing fleets to stand at around 2,000 in 2013 and forecasts that by 2020 there could be between 75,000 and 100,000 of such vehicles in operation, as providers such as OEMs, leasing arms, rental companies, car sharing organisations (CSOs) and technology providers continually enter the market and expand geographically with competing solutions. With more than half of European automobile sales now accounted for by fleet sales, set against the ever growing demand for car sharing services, the two business models were always likely to converge, given the benefits of shared mobility in reducing costs and improving efficiency, and the relatively higher business travel requirements in terms of utilisation and flexibility.

Dedicated corporate car sharing solutions are beginning to become far more prevalent in a company’s mobility requirements, as the attractiveness and awareness of such offerings increases. With rising congestion and the relative ease of using public transport in most urban areas, set against the challenges of parking in particular, the need of having a dedicated car for each employee for business requirements in many cases is declining. And as connected cars become more commonplace, the kind of telematics and fleet management software that is used in cars haring fleets is beginning to be offered into several corporate situations. These changing urban dynamics alongside evolving consumer electronics and fleet management technology in particular, have led to a new wave of corporate car sharing solutions across Europe.

A comprehensive corporate mobility solution allows employees the use of several travel modes billed to a dedicated cost centre. This will lead to a changing role of the company car in future, and give rise to a growing mobility option on a company wide basis. Accessing desirable corporate car sharing fleets at reasonable or subsidised prices will enable company fleets to become potential profit generators rather than just cost centres through charging employees for personal vehicle use. Those employees that may not have previously qualified for their own company car would also be granted access to the corporate car share vehicles, which are largely brand new high quality vehicles, and will therefore not only boost staff morale and retention for the companies offering the services, but ensure sufficient vehicle volumes to service providers to underpin the business model longer term, as the requirements for vehicles increases.

With providers looking to offer multi-brand options enabled by standardised technology and interfaces, the range of vehicles available through corporate car sharing schemes is set to increase substantially. Whilst OEMs want to sell their own brands, there is an increasing awareness that corporate mobility requires flexibility and product offerings at all price points, and that customers are used to fleet/leasing/rental providers which offer a range of vehicle brands to their customers.

Keyless access and centralised end-of the-month invoicing are some of the elements that will continue to play a pivotal role in making corporate car sharing programmes scalable and simple to adopt by corporates. The operating model will evolve from (RFID) smartcards and Fobs to use smartphone based virtual keys, and potentially allow multiple companies to share the same fleet, by downloading a generic corporate car sharing app for example, and in turn lowering costs to employers that are located in close proximity, and increasing efficiency/utilisation of the vehicles.

Whilst there are 13 providers of corporate car sharing services in 2013, it is forecast that every major OEM, leasing, and rental firm will have a branded solution or partnership in place to accommodate this market requirement, and as such there could be over 30 corporate cars haring providers in Europe by 2020, with a likely convergence of some schemes and operating models along the way.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Improve and increase mass transit systems to minimise congestion
    January 24, 2012
    Rather looking to solve congestion by spreading the load, perhaps we need to look at concentrating it. Michael L. Sena writes. We humans were made to walk and run at embarrassingly slow speeds by comparison with other, more fleet-footed organisms. The sea is not our natural habitat and we were definitely not designed to fly unaided. Nevertheless, humankind has evolved a method of living during the past century that is dependent on transporting its members over very long distances during relatively short per
  • Bit by bit insurers agree data protocol
    November 7, 2013
    Telematics technology may be a game changer for the automobile insurance industry but it comes with some caveats as Colin Sowman discovers. James Bielak, (P&C) program manager at the US office of ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), has an unenviable job: to devise a standard form of communicating vehicle data between telematics providers and insurance companies. To that end he has gathered together a group composed of insurers, telematics providers and other intere
  • Trends in automotive technology
    March 14, 2012
    Continental has become a leading player in vehicle technology and telematics. The firm’s executive board chairman Elmar Degenhart describes to Jason Barnes Continental’s views on the ‘megatrends’ of the automotive industry Strategic moves to diversify Continental’s business from rubber-related products began in the late 1990s with the acquisition of ITT Teves and its brake business. This brought on board know-how relating to the then new electronic stability control (ESC) systems which today form an import
  • ABI Research sees V2X technology gaining momentum in automotive
    June 12, 2017
    The latest report from ABI Research sees vehicle-to-everything (V2X) finally gaining momentum in the smart mobility industry. Illustrating this is a growing number of initiatives, trials, and product launches. Cellular V2X, aggressively promoted by the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), now offers a potentially more flexible alternative to the legacy IEEE 802.11p. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) collectively refer to V2X.