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

  • ITS asset management matters
    April 26, 2013
    Maintenance of on-road ITS kit needs to become more sophisticated; while new technologies can deliver better road maintenance. David Crawford investigates both sides of the issue "Good information is key to effective ITS asset maintenance,” says Ian Routledge of the Ian Routledge Consultancy (IRC), whose Imtrac (Information Management for TRAffic Control) system is poised for European expansion. Developed as an ‘intelligent filing cabinet’ for storing information about on-road equipment, the online database
  • IRF Geneva leads UN road safety meeting
    October 5, 2022
    The International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva convened key industry leaders to discuss “Action for Road Safety: Private Sector Leadership” on the occasion of the UN High Level Meeting on Global Road Safety hosted in New York
  • UITP highlights mass transit changes
    October 25, 2022
    Increasingly, public transport passengers will no longer need to carry a dedicated smartcard ticket to travel, as technology enables virtually any type of contactless payment system to take over the role.
  • Data crunching ‘can prevent cars crashing’
    March 25, 2013
    Having already cut traffic collisions resulting in injuries and deaths by nearly forty per cent in five years by analysing patterns from data it has collected, the city of Edmonton, Canada, is using predictive technologies to increase road safety even more. The city’s Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has installed as many as 200 digital signs as just one element of an innovative traffic safety program that has dramatically reduced vehicle collisions in the Edmonton region since OTS launched in late 2006. Unde