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

Zipcar, one of the biggest players in the car-sharing market, released information showing how customers saved gas and money by using its services.² While it’s always better to get metrics from an objective source, there is a lack of data surrounding car shares in the United States and beyond, so we relied on Zipcar for the following data.

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 56.6 miles—that couldn’t be achieved without a car. People in Zipcars are more likely to carpool, with an average of 2.18 people onboard compared to 1.67 per trip nationally.

A single Zipcar replaces 13 privately owned vehicles and most people arrive to their Zipcar by walking (85 percent) taking public transit (27 percent) or biking/scootering (12 percent.) All in all, Zipcars have resulted in 2.1 billion fewer miles driven, reducing the carbon footprint of each 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 2023 (depending on your location) and an average trip cost of $165, Zipcar members avoid spending money on auto insurance, maintenance, operating and parking. On average, Zipcar users save $1,053 a month compared to car owners.

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 schlep to the nearest airport. For those who need cars on occasion, car sharing is a great option.

P2P

Peer-to-peer (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

To book a car, you must be 18 years old or older in the U.S., with a valid driver’s license and approval from Turo, which requires supplying your driver’s license number, along with other pieces of information. Typically, approval happens immediately, and then you can start renting a car. Some car owners will even deliver the car to you or you can find the vehicles parked near airports.

B2C

Business-to-consumer (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.

B2B

In business-to-business (B2B) car shares, companies let their employees have 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 2023, the global car-sharing market was projected to reach $12.89 billion, according to a Market Insights report by Statista. By 2027, it’s expected to reach $15.92 billion from 63.15 million users, 94 percent of which will be through online sales. Most of the revenue will come from the U.S., the survey predicts.

The most recent January 2023 projections from McKinsey show that spending on shared mobility, which includes car sharing, will reach $500 billion to $1 trillion by 2030. Car sharing on its own will reach global revenues of $10 to $15 billion on its own.

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

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 have invested over $100 billion from 2010 to 2023, including over 150 cities aiming to curb the use of private vehicles.⁵

Worldwide

As of 2020, China had the most car sharing users, where nearly one-fourth of the population used car sharing services frequently. It was least popular in Japan, where 82 percent of the population had never used car shares, according to a McKinsey research report.

U.S.

Car sharing is still catching on in the U.S. In its 2020 survey, McKinsey found that seven out of 10 Americans had never used a car share, but nearly two in 10 used them frequently.

Statista released a report on its June 2024 survey of its U.S. customers, as well as a summary of the top car sharing companies in the U.S. Zipcar currently holds the plurality of customers at 34 percent.

Compared to the total population of people online, both Turo and Gig Car Share customers are more likely to be millennials, males, college-educated, higher-income and residents of cities.

While Gig Car Share has an even bigger proportion of millennials, males, high-earning, city residents, Turo has higher proportions of college-educated customers.

Public data about car sharing is hard to find, which makes predicting the industry’s future even more challenging than usual. 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. For more information on affordable travel, read our research on gas prices, one of the biggest costs of car ownership. See the answers to frequently asked questions about car sharing below.

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

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