Abstract
Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis. Operators provide carsharing services using different business models and ownership structures. We distinguish between cooperative, business-to-consumer (B2C) roundtrip and one-way, as well as peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing. This paper characterizes these different types of business models and compares their success in terms of diffusion using a comprehensive database of all 101 German carsharing providers in 2016. The key result holds that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars (cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). By analyzing for each operator the number of cars per capita in the city they operate in, we do not find significant differences across business models indicating the viability of each separate business model type. Hence, we conclude that business models will continue to co-exist for a while, although some of the business models may well converge in the longer run due to Internet-of-Things applications and the introduction of self-driving cars.
Highlights
Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis
The key result holds that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars, to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country)
The 101 identified carsharing organizations were allocated to the four business model types according to the general typology used in the literature and described in the previous chapter 3
Summary
Carsharing provides an alternative to private car ownership by allowing car use temporarily on an on-demand basis. The key result holds that fleet size is significantly different across business models ranging from a few cars (cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). We ask the question why different business models currently co-exist and how they perform To this end, we compiled a comprehensive and detailed database of all carsharing providers in Germany, ranging from one-car organizations operating in small villages to large car manufacturers operating fleets of over a thousand cars. Business models are very distinct in terms of their fleet size ranging from a few cars (operated by cooperatives in small towns), to a few hundred (B2C roundtrip in larger cities), to over a thousand (B2C one-way in largest cities), up to multiple thousands (P2P across the country). We provide a literature review on relevant carsharing research including the historical context of carsharing in Germany and a short overview of business model literature in general and carsharing business
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