Recently there are more people using “car sharing” for mobility without having their own cars, and what kind of adverse influence this innovative mechanism called “car sharing” has on automobile manufacturers Is not it.

What is car sharing?

As you may already know, “car sharing” refers to <strong> “sharing a car among people who became a member, not their own car”

In particular, what kind of use and when is it easy to use?

Car sharing is a service of using a car for a certain period of time, returning it to a designated place and paying the usage fee only for the amount used. Unlike rent-a-car, you can easily use the car in short units of 30 minutes, 1 hour. At first it was a service that started in the university campus, popular tourist spots, etc, but now it is expanding all over the world.

引用；なぜ世界中の自動車メーカーが「カーシェア」にこぞって投資するのか

Speaking of representative services, American car sharing companies called “Zipcar” and German “Car 2go” have so far placed a certain position in this new market.  

Automobile manufacturers are entering the “car sharing” industry

Spreading “car sharing” service will certainly affect the sales and operation of automobile manufacturers. Why? It is simply understandable that as the more “car sharing” becomes prevalent, the fewer people will use private cars. This will surely drop the needs of buying a new car or even used car from any automobile manufacturers.

To adapt to this new trend, some major car manufacturers such as Toyota and Nissan are entering this new market. Why do the car manufacturers commit the act that seems to be tightening their neck by themselves?

Automobile manufacturers are afraid of youths leaving the car

Entry of automobile manufacturer’s to “car sharing” market seems so unreasonable. However, they need to do so for some fundamental reasons.

One reason can be easily seen is that automobile manufacturers need to create partnerships with all possible business due to the decreasing need of buying a car in this generation. Thanks to the technology advancement, people can work remotely without going to office, they can travel visibly by using some advanced sensible advices, the new tendency of young people to use cheap public transports, etc. Besides cars as a major means of transporting, bicycles and trains, and recently segways are getting more and more popular, hence transportation that may encourage ‘no use of car’ will continue to emerge. If that happens, automakers will not even be able to sell their cars to even the “car sharing” industry. If they fall into that worst scenario, automobile manufacturers will have no string and lead to the end of its thriving era.