Challenges of shared mobility

Adel Murad

It seems that car sharing in major cities, as part of future mobility solutions, has its own problems as highlighted by the experience of a French company that operates a fleet of 3,000 electric cars in Paris.
At the Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition in Montreal in June, Jean-Luc Monfort, general manager of Blue Solutions Canada Inc., was asked to name some of the challenges Blue Solutions had faced starting the services. He listed one that was a surprise — vandalism.
He added “You may have heard of some demonstrations recently in Paris,” referring to labor demonstrations in the city, including one in mid-June.
“Very often, their way to demonstrate is to burn our cars. All together, we have had more than 45 cars burned.”
As a result, no insurance company will insure the fleet, forcing the company to self-insure its Paris fleet of more than 3,000 cars, he said.
There are of course other challenges facing the emerging industry including the strong desire to own and use a car exclusively; the limited driving experience of some of the potential users of shared mobility.
On the infra structure side, there are road congestion and the limited parking for car-sharing.
Some municipal councils have restrictions on vehicle use within cities and are unfamiliar with car sharing.
Even for the companies operating car sharing schemes, there are challenges such as the high capital requirements and the potential competition from other — and cheaper — public transport modes.
However, these and other challenges are not going to stop the momentum of car sharing trends, so far used by an estimated 1.7 million people in 27 countries.
The largest car sharing schemes in North America and Europe are Car2Go with over 900,000 members and 12,000 vehicles and Zipcar with about 767,000 members and 11,000 vehicles.
Revenue from these services is expected to rise to two billion dollars in 2020 with 12 million members worldwide.
This is motivated by city congestion and shifting mindsets of new generations about car ownership.
Despite these challenges, car sharing is the way to future mobility.
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Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist, based in London.
Email: [email protected]