Carsharing Market Research Articles

Panek Carsharing 2.0: An innovative sharing economy platform for efficient and sustainable mobility

Purpose of Study: To investigate and evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform as a solution for mobility needs Furthermore, The research aims to analyze the features and functionalities of the platform. assess its impact on the efficiency of car-sharing services and evaluate its contribution to sustainable mobility practices Followed by providing insights into the benefits and limitations of the Panek Carsharing 2.0 platform and identifying areas for improvement to enhance its efficiency and sustainability in the context of shared mobility.
 Methodology: The paper was prepared with the use the critical literature review method mainly in the field of sharing economy. In conducting a literature review, the researchers examined academic and professional literature, articles, publications, and relevant documents related to the subject matter. These sources provided valuable insights into the current state of carsharing platforms, with a particular emphasis on innovative approaches in the sharing economy sector.
 Main findings: Sharing economy and shared mobility are rapidly growing areas with the potential to transform resource utilization and transportation. The sharing economy allows for more efficient use of goods and services, while shared mobility enables flexible and convenient transportation options. Benefits of the sharing economy and shared mobility include sustainable resource utilization, reduced congestion, and financial savings. Panek S.A. aims to enhance their Panek CarSharing service by implementing innovative algorithms and modules to improve safety, optimize fleet management, and enhance the overall user experience.
 Application of the study: The application of this study in the carsharing market can provide valuable insights for carsharing providers, policymakers, and researchers. Carsharing providers can utilize the findings to enhance their service offerings and business strategies. The study can help identify key factors that influence customer preferences, usage patterns, and satisfaction levels, allowing providers to tailor their services accordingly. Policymakers can use the study's insights to inform regulations and policies that support the growth and sustainability of the carsharing industry. Additionally, researchers can build upon the study's findings to further investigate specific aspects of the carsharing market, such as pricing models, customer behavior, or the impact of carsharing on urban mobility and environmental sustainability. Ultimately, the application of this study can contribute to the development of a more efficient, accessible, and sustainable carsharing ecosystem.
 Originality/Novelty of the study: The originality of this study lies in the innovative approach taken by PANEK S.A. to enhance and develop their Panek CarSharing service. By leveraging modern technologies and innovative features, PANEK S.A. strives to improve their offering and create a more attractive experience for users.

Optimal order quantities, buyback prices, and government subsidies for cars in a sharing economy environment

To reduce carbon emissions from urban transportation and increase the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), many governments have provided purchase subsidies to incentivize customers to buy EVs. As the popularity of EVs increases, some governments have begun to provide battery recycling subsidies to car manufacturers. However, in a sharing economy environment, the mechanism under which the purchase subsidy and the battery recycling subsidy promote the popularity of EVs and the maturity of the EV sharing market is unclear. In this study, two commonly applied governmental subsidy policies are introduced: one considers only purchase subsidy (P-policy), and the other considers both purchase subsidy and recycling subsidy (P&R-policy). Under each policy, a stylized Stackelberg game model is constructed considering the forward and reverse supply chains in the car-sharing market. The objective of this study is to obtain the car-sharing platform’s optimal ordering quantities of EVs and fueled vehicles (FVs), the car manufacturer’s optimal buyback prices of used EVs and FVs, and the government’s optimal subsidies under the P-policy and P&R-policy. Through model-solving and analyses, it is found that both policies could increase the popularity of EVs in the car-sharing market, and the P&R-policy has a higher promotion effect on EVs than the P-policy. As for policy implementation, this study suggests that with the popularity of EVs, the subsidies under each policy should be decreased. Particularly, the declining rate of the purchase subsidy for high-performance EVs should be lower than that for low-performance EVs. The recycling subsidy for low-performance EVs should be reduced the most.

Understanding the characteristics of car-sharing users and what influences their usage frequency

Throughout the global market, the car-sharing industry continues to confront multiple headwinds. In China, the problem of the generally low frequency of car-sharing use by users (FCU) is a major constraint to its growth. In this study, we quantify the characteristics of car-sharing users and the main factors influencing the FCU based on the car-sharing order data and GPS trajectory data of users in Beijing, China. Considering that sample selection bias with car-sharing users can lead to biased and inconsistent parameter estimation, this paper constructs a multi-factor influence model of FCU based on the Heckman two-stage model. Particularly, whether users enter the market through coupons (IF-Coupons) is selected as the instrumental variable of the model. The results reveal that current car-sharing users are mainly young people aged 25–39 and predominantly men. Travelers tend to travel on weekdays, and those making short trips, and those who enter the car-sharing market using coupons are more likely to become car-sharing users. Based on the results for the FCU, the market potential of female car-sharing users is larger. Besides, the indicators of travel distance and duration, the tendency to use on weekdays, and station location can significantly influence the FCU. Our research contributes to provide scientific theoretical support for promoting the coordinated and sustainable development of the car-sharing market.

Sharing Is Caring: An Economic Analysis of Consumer Engagement in an Electric Vehicle Sharing Service

A growing population and increasing consumer demand have created unprecedented pressures on the environment and natural resources. The private vehicles market, one of the largest markets in the world, is associated with considerable environmental costs. Sharing electric vehicles, where consumers can enjoy the benefits of a greener vehicle without owning it, has emerged as an innovation that can reduce some of the environmental costs of ownership. However, uncertainty around the determinants of participation remain. This study employs an econometric model using survey and experimental data that were collected at the initial stages of the roll-out of an electric-vehicle-sharing service in Malta, in order to identify the psychological factors that determine the willingness to use and to pay for such a service, the propensity to walk to a car-sharing station, as well as the likelihood of scrapping a privately owned vehicle. The findings suggest that engagement in the car-sharing market is more likely to take place among those who have a lower psychological attachment to the private car, are already using multiple transport methods and are sharing a car with other household members. A large number of cars per household and a high use are negatively associated with uptake. The results also suggest that consumers who care about the environment are more likely to engage in car sharing.

The carsharing market in Russia: Factors of formation and development trends

The paper identifies the factors that have influenced the development of the carsharing market in Russia, analyses current trends and identifies the problems hindering the development of the service. As the research shows, the carsharing market developed at a fast pace in 2015-2021, not counting the pause in the first half of 2020 caused by the coronavirus epidemic. This was facilitated by the benefits that carsharing offers to users, as well as government support for carsharing services. It is revealed that users’ interest in this service grew from 2015 to 2019, then the trend changed to a negative one. Analysis of internet users’ search queries reveals that their awareness about carsharing has increased by 2022 as compared to 2019. In 2022, the market for carsharing services saw dramatic changes due to the departure of a number of foreign car manufacturers and difficulties with the supply of spare parts. It is concluded that the carsharing market has a high degree of monopolisation. The most significant factors limiting the development of carsharing include the rapid growth of tariffs, difficulties in renting a car within walking distance, user concerns about possible damage to the car, technical failures, leakage of personal data, and a lower sense of privacy, security and comfort compared to a private car. The elimination of the identified negative factors (curbing fare increases, state support of carsharing companies in the regions, improved accessibility of carsharing, etc.) will contribute to a more rapid development of this service.

The Expectations towards Cars to Be Used in Car-Sharing Services—The Perspective of the Current Polish Non-Users

In the era of upcoming European Union regulations limiting the registration of combustion cars from 2035, the development of various types of alternatives to balancing transport is on the agenda of modern cities. One of these types of services includes automated short-term car rental systems, i.e., car-sharing systems. In recent years, car-sharing services have been gaining more and more interest among operators and municipal authorities. Despite their intense activities, there are still people in society who have not used car-sharing services so far. A lot of research has been devoted to an attempt to answer their needs in the field of car-sharing, but there is a research gap in the field of detailed analyses of the fleet of cars that they would like to use. Noticing this niche, this article is dedicated to the topic of selecting vehicles for car-sharing systems from the point of view of current non-users and indicating the features that, in their opinion, are the most important parameters characterizing the given vehicles. The research was conducted for the Polish car-sharing market. The obtained results indicate that current non-users would be most interested in small, city B-class cars equipped with internal combustion or electric engines, equipped with a large luggage compartment, and meeting the highest safety standards. Interestingly, the issue of the charging time for electric vehicles was not considered crucial. The results showed that the expectations of non-user vehicles are in contradiction to the expectations of current system users. The article supports car-sharing operators who want to properly manage and modernize their fleet of vehicles to encourage the use of car-sharing among those who are currently unconvinced.

Aligning users’ and stakeholders’ needs: How incentives can reshape the carsharing market

Carsharing services provide users with a new way of approaching mobility and accessing shared vehicles. Since the initial pilot studies in the early 90s, technological innovations (e.g., advances in mobile technology, increased range of electric cars) and the establishment of new business models (e.g, station-based, free-floating, peer-to-peer, packages by time and/or kilometres) helped branding carsharing as a sustainable yet flexible and personalized mobility alternative. On the other hand, the carsharing market today is extremely scattered, as it can include multiple operators, which are often in competition among each other. While this variety of operators provides the user with a variety of travel options, without proper coordination, this competition can reduce the efficiency of the carsharing market and, in extreme cases, of the entire transportation system.In this context, this paper studies the needs of travellers, local authorities, and carsharing service providers, and analyses how incentives can be used to align their goals. Taking Munich, Copenhagen, and Tel Aviv-Yafo as case studies, focus groups were used to identify thirteen different travellers’ needs, which are grouped into five main categories: ownership issues, coverage area, financial aspects, vehicle settings, and integration of carsharing with other modes. Moreover, to understand the needs of service providers and public authorities, in-depth interviews were conducted. The results indicate that regulatory barriers, integration with other transport modes, and social equity issues are the most critical elements for the thriving of carsharing services. Our results also suggest that incentives can be divided into two main categories, namely direct and indirect incentives. With regards to direct incentives, parking stood out as the most important incentive. Among indirect incentives, those associated with the integration of carsharing with other transport services, were prominent. As part of the methodology, the results of the qualitative study are validated through a quantitative analysis. A bigger sample of the population answered an online survey, which was used to validate the list of potential incentives that can help aligning the goals of stakeholders and users.

Optimal pricing and pricing policy selection for a B2C car-sharing platform during peak and off-peak hours

This study examines the optimal pricing and pricing policy selection for a business-to-consumer (B2C) car-sharing platform during peak and off-peak hours, where two pricing policies are evaluated, that is, fixed pricing policy and dynamic pricing policy. First, we construct the B2C car-sharing market demand function and the sharing platform’s profit maximization model under each pricing policy, and obtain optimal outcomes by solving the model, including service price, market demand, platform’s profit, consumer surplus, and social welfare. Then, through analysis, we reveal the effects of the pricing policy selection on the optimal outcomes. The results show that compared with the fixed pricing policy, implementing a dynamic pricing policy can increase the sharing platform’s profit, but decrease the consumer surplus and social welfare. Additionally, implementing a dynamic pricing policy can also increase the demand during off-peak hours and decrease the demand during peak hours.

From the Classic Business Model to Open Innovation and Data Sharing—The Concept of an Open Car-Sharing Business Model

The car-sharing market is changing at a dynamic pace. Along with changes and new user habits, car-sharing systems are required to make this market even more accessible and flexible. This solution is possible due to the joining of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) systems and the sharing of data, as well as the implementation of open innovations. However, these are aspects that strongly interfere with the business models of car-sharing systems. Due to this fact, this article is dedicated to the subject of business models in car-sharing systems and the issues of using data sharing and implementing open innovations. This study aimed to analyze the current state of business models and to propose an individual business model of an open car-sharing system based on the concept of open innovation and data sharing. As part of the study, expert surveys were carried out. The results obtained indicate that the dynamics of business models and the development of innovation in car-sharing enterprises are being disrupted. Moreover, most of the current business models are not updated. They also do not consider the subject of open innovation and data sharing, despite operators considering this problem to be significant. The individual model of an open car-sharing system developed in this article was constructed in such a way as to support operators during the transformation of current business models into a modern open model.

Integrated optimization of pricing and relocation in the competitive carsharing market: A multi-leader-follower game model

One-way carsharing, as a shared mobility service, is attracting increasing attention due to its flexibility and social benefits. Spurred by this trend, an increasing number of companies have been formed, which promotes the expansion of the carsharing market. In the presence of intensifying competitive pressure, it has become imperative for companies to determine their optimal operational strategies by adjusting their pricing and relocation strategies to ensure financially sustainable service operations. Indeed, the most urgent issue that must be addressed is the modeling of an integrated framework combining the pricing and relocation strategies of operators in a competitive market. To solve this problem, a game-theoretical multi-leader–follower model is proposed to maximize the profit of each company involved and minimize the disutility of travelers, the Nash equilibrium solution of which is obtained by developing a diagonalization algorithm framework. Specifically, in each iteration, a bilevel model is solved to obtain the best response, which is the most favorable outcome for a certain company given competing companies’ strategies. The upper level aims to determine the pricing and relocation strategy of each company, while the lower level assigns trip demand by solving a stochastic user equilibrium problem. The proposed method is applied to a hypothetical case study and a realistic example in the context of Quanzhou city, China, and its performance is demonstrated by extensive sensitivity analysis. The results show that the total profits of the market rise with the number of companies increasing, but the average profit and price drop. Through a comparison between strategies with and without relocations, it is found that relocation strategies have a significant impact on raising profits of a company with a large fleet size.

Problems of carsharing integration in urban transport systems of Russian megacities

Background: Transport problems of Russian megacities are mostly consequences of motorization increasing and inefficient transport policy provided by local transport authorities. At the same time, the structure of urban transport markets is changing because of new business models of transport sharing emerging and development. Different models of sharing could be an important part of urban transport systems, but it requires initiative both of transport companies and local transport authorities.
 Aim: to assess the state and determine the prospects for the development of the Russian carsharing market as a whole, as well as its largest segment (the carsharing market in Moscow).
 Methods: methods of statistical analysis, graphical representation of information, summary, methods of analysis of industry markets (concentration index, Herfindahl Hirschman index).
 Results: In this article barriers for the development of transport sharing in Russian cities are identified, and forms of sharing integration in urban transport cities are developed.
 Conclusion: The results obtained can be used by local authorities responsible for public transport services and the development of transport policy in Russian cities, as well as transport organizations engaged in multimodal transportation of passengers in megacities.

Understanding carsharing: A review of managerial practices towards relevant research insights

The carsharing market has never been as competitive as it is now, and during the last years, we have been witnessing a boom in the number of carsharing organizations that appear, often accompanied by an also booming number of companies that disappear. Designing a viable carsharing system is challenging and often depends on local conditions as well as on a myriad of operational decisions that need to be supported by suitable decision-support systems. Therefore, carsharing is being increasingly studied in the Operations Management (OM) literature. Nevertheless, often due to the limited transparency of this highly competitive sector and the recency of this business, there is still a “gap of understanding” of the scientific community concerning the business practices and contexts, often resulting in over-simplifications and relevant problems being overlooked. In this paper, we aim to close this “gap of understanding” by describing, conceptualizing, and analyzing the reality of 34 business-to-consumer carsharing organizations. With the data collected, we propose a detailed description of the current business practices, such as the ones concerning pricing. From this, we highlight relevant “research insights” and structure all collected data organized by different OM topics, enabling knowledge to be further developed in this field.

Optimal pricing model of car-sharing: market pricing or platform pricing

PurposeThe car-sharing market has entered the mature stage, and consumers' demand shows a diversified increasing trend. This paper considers two modes of operation and two pricing strategies, which are business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer modes, market pricing and platform pricing. Under these conditions, the platform's revenue-sharing ratio will be different. The purpose of this paper is to explore this research question, and seeks an optimal pricing mechanism that can achieve a win–win situation between platform and automobile manufacturer in the two market modes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors design different profit functions for platform under the two contexts. Of course, the platform's function is constrained to the manufacturer's function. By introducing a revenue-sharing contract a Stackelberg game model dominated by the platform is established and the equilibrium solutions under the two pricing models are derived.FindingsThe study found that even if only market pricing is executed, the scale of the car-sharing market will continue to expand. As the car-sharing market becomes more saturated, platform pricing is better for the automobile manufacturer; in most cases, the platform prefers platform pricing, but when the number of private cars is relatively small, if the cost of car operation and maintenance for the automobile manufacturer is lower or the revenue-sharing ratio of private cars is high, then market pricing will be more favorable to the platform.Practical implicationsWith the cross-border integration of car service platforms and the automobile manufacturing industry, the key to achieving win–win cooperation and sustainable development in the car-sharing market will converge on the question of how to design a suitable pricing mechanism and revenue-sharing method.Originality/valueAuthors have determined how a car-sharing platform achieves a win–win order pricing strategy with the manufacturer and private car owners, respectively. And authors combined the supply chain revenue-sharing contract with the car-sharing market to explore the application of the revenue-sharing contract in the sharing economy.

Carsharing Services in Italy: Trends and Innovations

Transport is a critical factor for social-economic development, however, its environmental footprint cannot be neglected and is increasing over time. New mobility services based on collaborative consumption, such as peer-to-peer carsharing, have been developed with the aim of improving accessibility and reducing the negative externalities produced by transport. However, in the literature, there are very few documents that analyze collaborative consumption in the transport sector. To shed light on this topic, we described the Italian carsharing market and explained how it has changed over time. Moreover, we studied the potentialities of peer-to-peer carsharing in a less densely populated Italian region on the basis of a survey we conducted through face-to-face interviews. We found that the main reason preventing its spread is that individuals are not yet aware of its existence. We also analyzed the motivations of those who would like to use it and of those who stated the opposite. Suggestions are presented on the strategies to be implemented to facilitate the adoption of the service for the benefit of both platform providers and local administrators.

Adoption of Electric Vehicles in Car Sharing Market

In this study, we examine whether it is optimal to use electric vehicles (EVs) in the car sharing market and investigate the environmental impact of pulling the EVs from the market. We develop a model consisting of a profit‐maximizing car sharing company (CSC) and a population of utility‐maximizing customers. The CSC sets the number of EVs, the number of fuel vehicles (FVs), and the rental price jointly to maximize its profit. Customers decide whether to use EVs, FVs, or public transportation to complete their trips considering the rental price. We show that it is optimal to use EVs only if the charging speed, the number of charging stations, and the range of EVs are high enough. Among these three conditions, the recharging speed is the most important and the number of charging stations is more important than the range of EVs. We also find that including EVs in the car sharing market may lead to a higher total emission when ignoring customers’ other transportation choices (due to a lower rental price that results in a higher usage rate). Moreover, we consider the problem with the objective of maximizing the social welfare and find that when considering the environmental impact, governments should tax the CSC to induce a higher rental price and when ignoring this impact, they should subsidize the CSC to reduce the rental price. We demonstrate our results with the case study of Car2go. These results are in line with that the slow recharging speed may have been one of the contributing factors to that Car2go replaced EVs with FVs in San Diego.

Factors affecting crash risk within the car-sharing market

Factors affecting crash risk within the car-sharing market

Factors affecting crash risk within the car-sharing market

As the sharing economy becomes increasingly more popular, crash risk assessment has become important not only for insurance companies, but also for companies engaged in the car-sharing business. As such, linear regression and machine learning methods, such as regression trees and random forests, were used to model crash risk based on the observations retrieved from car-sharing systems. The evidence shows that the average daily trip duration, the month of the crash event, and the car brand have the greatest impact on crash rates, while holiday, working day or weekend; peak hour; and gender of the driver hold no valuable information for predicting crash risk. After a proper assessment of the risk indicators that have the greatest impact on the occurrence of crashes, companies might be able to enter into personalised car-sharing pricing by developing usage-based or pay-as-you-drive insurance products.

Carsharing: Business models, and role of the decision maker

Individuals' mobility needs are constantly increasing both in urban and in less-densely popu-lated areas. Private transport activities are intensifying, creating unsustainable environmental pressure and absorbing a too large amount of resources, forcing to social exclusion the popu-lation segments which cannot bear the cost of private transport. Car sharing has proven to be a viable solution to alleviate at least partially these problems. Many different business models are used to provide the service. Organizational and technical innovations have changed the market, opening the supply to new providers and serving segments of the latent demand which were not reached by the traditional operators. The role played by the decision marker to sup-port the development of this market in its various forms has been essential and will still be crit-ical in order to guide a smooth transition from the private use of traditional vehicles to the shared use of autonomous ones. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on these changing characteristics of the carsharing market with a special focus on the Italian context.

Adoption of Electric Vehicles in Car Sharing Market

Motivated by the news that Car2go replaced all of its electric vehicle fleet with gasoline-powered cars starting from 1 May 2016, we examine whether it is optimal to use electric vehicles (EVs) in the car sharing market and investigate the environmental impact of pulling the EVs from the market. We develop a model consisting of a profit-maximizing car sharing company (CSC) and a population of utility-maximizing customers. The CSC sets the number of EVs, the number of fuel vehicles (FVs), and the rental price jointly to maximize its profit. Customers decide whether to use EVs, FVs, or public transportation to complete their trips considering the rental price. We show that it is optimal to use EVs only if the charging speed, the number of charging stations, and the range of EVs are high enough. Among these three conditions, the recharging speed is the most important and the number of charging stations is more important than the range of EVs. We also find that including EVs in the car sharing market may lead to a higher total emission (due to a lower rental price that results in a higher usage rate). Moreover, we consider the problem with the objective of maximizing social welfare and find that when considering the environmental impact, the government should tax the CSC to induce a higher rental price and when ignoring this impact, the government should subsidize the CSC to reduce this price. We demonstrate our results with the case study of Car2go in San Diego and find that Car2go replaced EVs with FVs likely due to the slow recharging speed.

Application of German State Policy Practice Towards Carsharing in Russia

Carsharing is one of the major recent trends in urban mobility in many countries of Asia, Europe and North America. Russia is one of the leading countries in the industry in terms of growth rates and fleet volume in certain market segments. The purpose of this study is to analyze the key features of German carsharing market and policies regarding carsharing and highlight the possibilities of their application in Russia. As a result of the study a number of recommendations for carsharing development in Russia were outlined. According to several studies, stationbased schemes seem to be environmentally more beneficial compared to free-float carsharing. Station-based carsharing stimulation should be considered as a means to facilitate the development of the industry. A new metamobility policy is required, which implies carsharing, public transport, micromobility and private cars all become part of a single multimodal transport system. A transparent regulatory framework is required. New billing and payment methods, combined tariffs and a single mobile application for all means of public transport and carsharing should be considered as viable measures to stimulate the development of carsharing industry and transport system in general. Parking fees for carsharing should be reduced or waived. Leasing subsidies and preferential business conditions should be introduced to support carsharing operators. Additional taxes for personal vehicles as well as fees for parking and entering the city center using private transport should also stimulate carsharing development.