Car Sharing Facts and Statistics

Car sharing is a type of car rental system that lets you rent a car 24/7 for any amount of time. The customer is billed for the usage only, in miles or time, and doesn’t have to pay for gas, insurance or maintenance. Unlike regular car rentals, where rental companies are located in cities and at airports, car shares are scattered throughout a city, making them more convenient for customers to walk to.¹

According to recent data from Zipcar, which launched in 2000 and is still one of the biggest players in the car-sharing market, customers save a significant amount of money and lower carbon emissions by using its services.²

Environmentally Friendly

Compared to car owners, Zipcar members drive 40 percent fewer miles, instead relying on bikes, public transportation and walking. When Zipcar members do drive, they take longer trips — on average 67 miles — that couldn’t be achieved without a car. People in Zipcars are more likely to carpool, with an average of 2.12 people onboard compared to 1.5 per trip nationally.

A single Zipcar replaces 13 privately owned vehicles, and most people (82 percent) walk to their Zipcar. All in all, Zipcars have resulted in 15 billion pounds of carbon footprint reduction since 2016 and have reduced the carbon footprint of the average Zipcar member by 1,600 pounds per year.

Lower Cost

Car shares let people who need cars only occasionally avoid spending money on private car ownership. With a $9 monthly or $90 annual membership fee as of 2026 (depending on your location) and average trip costs of $175 per month, Zipcar members avoid spending money on auto insurance, maintenance, operating expenses and parking. On average, Zipcar claims users save $1,173 a month compared to car owners (including car payments, parking, gas, insurance, maintenance, and other expenses).

Flexibility and Convenience

Car shares are much more convenient for users than traditional car rental businesses and much less expensive than owning a car. People can rent these cars for as little as an hour and pick them up close to where they live, rather than having to travel to the nearest airport or rental car location. For those who need cars on occasion, car sharing is a great option.

Peer-to-peer (P2P)

P2P car sharing is when car owners rent out their personal vehicles for short periods of time, earning a side income by providing cars to people in need of transportation. Examples of P2P car-sharing companies include Getaround and Turo.

With Turo, for example, would-be drivers can use the company website or mobile app to browse available cars by make, destination and experience. The company offers electric vehicles (EVs), luxury vehicles and pet-friendly vehicles and works the same way as any other car rental company from the customer’s perspective.³

Business-to-consumer (B2C)

B2C car-sharing companies are private companies that rent out cars they own. Examples include Zipcar, Car2Go and DriveNow. B2C types can be broken down even further, depending on where you pick up and drop off your car:

• Free-floating: Customers can pick up and drop off floating cars anywhere, as opposed to returning them to a fixed place. EVs are parked near publicly available charging stations.
• Station-based: All vehicles are located in a fixed location where customers pick up and drop off the cars.
• A to B: In A to B car shares, a customer picks up a car at point A and drops it off at point B.

Business-to-business (B2B)

In B2B car shares, companies provide their employees access to a fleet of vehicles to conduct business operations. 

Nonprofit

Nonprofits like eGo Car Share, located in Boulder, Colorado, provide the public with car shares to reduce the number of private car owners and their environmental impact and to allow marginalized groups to access car shares more easily.⁴

Car Sharing Market Size

In 2024, the global car-sharing market was projected to reach $13.44 billion, according to a Market Insights report by Statista.⁵ By 2030, it’s expected to reach $18.75 billion from 73.20 million users, 95 percent of which will be through online sales. Most of the revenue will come from the U.S., the survey predicts.

The most recent projections from McKinsey, from January 2023, show that spending on shared mobility, which includes car sharing, will reach $500 billion to $1 trillion by 2030.⁶ Car sharing on its own will reach global revenues of $10 to $15 billion.

Compared to ridesharing, also known as e-hailing, car sharing is less convenient, as the customer still has to drive and park the car at their desired location. That may be why ridesharing made up 90 percent of the shared mobility market in 2019. McKinsey foresees that this trend will continue in 2030, with e-hailing accounting for between 80 and 90 percent of the shared-mobility market.

Investments

According to McKinsey, as of August 2021, there was $3 billion invested in the car-sharing market, a fraction of the investment in rideshares. As far as the shared mobility market overall, companies invested over $100 billion from 2010 to 2023, including over 150 cities aiming to curb the use of private vehicles.

Worldwide

As of 2024, Singapore had the highest user penetration rate — the percentage of a target market that uses a product — at 8.3 percent, according to a Statista Market Insights report.⁷ Among the countries with the lowest penetration rates are Brazil, Ghana, and India.

The following are the countries with the highest penetration rates:

U.S.

According to a Statista survey, as of December 2024, 29 percent of respondents indicated that they used Zipcar in the past 12 months, making it the most popular car-sharing company in the U.S.⁸ Enterprise CarShare and Turo were the next most popular.

In terms of user demographics, men are more likely to use car sharing services than women — 65 percent of users in the U.S. are men.⁹ More than half of users are in a high-income bracket. Finally, most users are in the 25–34 age range.

Public data about car sharing is hard to find, which makes predicting the industry’s future even more challenging. However, McKinsey expects that by 2035, car sharing will still be a cheaper option than traditional car rentals. That said, with the rise of self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles will be cheaper than car sharing. Of course, the cheapest option is always public transportation, provided it’s available in your area.

Car sharing is yet another example of how technology has disrupted the car industry. It provides convenient use of a car for a customizable amount of time, making it a great option for drivers who don’t own a car but occasionally need to take trips for which a car is the best form of transportation. For more information on affordable travel, read our research on gas prices, one of the biggest costs of car ownership.

To compile this research, we used data and information from third parties, such as:

• Environmental Protection Agency
• McKinsey
• Statista
• Turo
• Zipcar