What do sustainable mobility concepts look like?
Oeko-Institut, ISOE and car2go launch study on car sharing
Car sharing is trendy, it’s seen as being flexible and sustainable – especially when the cars are powered by electricity. But when it comes to car sharing, how eco- and user-friendly are electric cars really compared to conventional automobiles? Who uses the cars and how are they being used? The German Oeko-Institut and ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research are now conducting research into these questions with the Daimler-subsidiary car2go, the pioneer and market leader of flexible car sharing concepts. The supporting research is being funded by the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
The German federal government wants to get at least one million electric cars onto Germany’s streets by the year 2020. As one of the first service providers, car2go has been deploying large numbers of electric cars at different locations since 2011. Car sharing can have ecological and economic advantages while offering users maximum flexibility: With car2go they can locate the next available car via smart phone in a matter of seconds, get in and then park the car at their destination after driving it.
But how eco-friendly is car sharing really compared to owning one’s own car? How does people’s choice of a means of transportation change? And can battery-driven electric cars overcome their perceived limitations and capitalise on the advantages they offer compared to conventional vehicles in the car sharing environment?
Large-scale empirical study on the use of flexible car sharing
Researchers from the Oeko-Institut and ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research are focusing on these questions now. The research team is conducting a large-scale empirical study on the way car2go drivers use the vehicles. “We want to find out how the daily usage of means of transportation changes in car2go users,” says project head Florian Hacker from the Oeko-Institut. The team is also taking a look at the similarities and differences between conventional and electric vehicles in a car sharing context. In order to do this, users in the German cities of Stuttgart and Cologne will be polled several times over a period of two years. In Cologne, car2go is using cars with fuel-efficient combustion engines, in Stuttgart a fleet of cars powered only by electric batteries is scheduled to begin operating within the year.
How attractive is car sharing with electric cars?
„It will be exciting to see how electric vehicles stand the car sharing test, especially compared to conventional cars,“ Hacker says. „For example as regards carbon footprint and usage patterns.” In supporting research on car2go, the scientific team is also studying the question of how electric cars’ different usage properties impact electromobility’s popular appeal. ISOE’s Konrad Götz is convinced: “Using fleets of electric cars in car sharing could play a key role for the acceptance of electro-mobility. Because for many people, this is the first chance they get to drive an electric car – seen to represent the future of mobility, after all.”
car2go’s managing director Robert Henrich welcomes the collaboration. “For the last four years, we have been going international with car2go and have grown considerably during this period. For far more than 200,000 people, including 25,000 users of electric cars, car2go has become an integral part of their own daily mobility. I am looking forward to the fact that now, together with Öko-Institut and ISOE, we can supplement our broad range of experience with scientific research.”
Contacts
Oeko-Institut e.V.
Mandy Schoßig
Head of PR & Communications
Phone: +49 30 405085-334
E-Mail: m.schossig@oeko.de
ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research
Melanie Neugart
Media Relations
Phone: +49 69 7076919-51
E-Mail: neugart@isoe.de
car2go GmbHAndreas LeoCorporate Communications ManagerPhone: +49 731 505 6821 E-Mail: andreas.leo@daimler.com