Dear Friends, may be we don’t notice much in Turkey, but in G7 countries, especially the young population, are increasingly interested in car-sharing apps.

You remember, for the first time in years in the Chinese market, vehicle sales for 2018 contracted close to 3% compared to the previous year. In fact, it has been increasing sales in the Chinese market every year for more than 20 years in a row. But signals of contraction had been revealed by the results of research by McKinsey through Chinese car users in 2016. This research showed that 60% of Chinese customers no longer see owning vehicles as a status symbol.  The Chinese have begun to say that they see car rental as more attractive due to owning costs in the long run. In fact, 26% of respondents said they could share a car. Ultimately, these preferences began to affect market sales. So much so that the car-sharing app created an economic value of 2 billion Yuan last year..

In the US and Western European countries, too, we see the interest of younger generations concentrating on car-sharing models. The resulting business models are divided into 5 main categories. These are ;

1.Free floating with an operation area  (e.g. ; Car2Go )

2. Free floating with parking stations ( e.g.; Autolib )

3. Home-based roundtrip ( e.g.; Partago )

4. Station based roundtrip by individually owned vehicles (e.g. Greenwheels )

5. Sharing of individually owned cars from one point to another (e.g.; Drivy )

All of these apps are supported mostly by software downloaded to smartphones. Vehicles in use are fully covered by insurance, whether owned by the operator or by the person. In addition, Chip Card application is available in some examples.

Prices, on the other hand, can offer sustainable competition on a European and US scale. Autolib, for example, had a price of € 7 for 30 minutes. However, the company ceased operations in Paris in June 2018 with a loss of € 293 million. We know that Uber has an impact on this outcome. Cars used in car sharing typically carry customers in downtown for less than 1 hour, up to a distance of 10 km.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the number of registered customers who prefer car sharing exceeded 10 million last year. By 2025, that number would exceed 40 million registered customers.

Zipcar, Moov, Blablacar applications that have started to operate recently in Turkey, I suggest you to monitor them closely.

See you in my next articles,

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