Flexible Carsharing—Potential for the Diffusion of Electric Mobility

Abstract

Electric mobility is a key to a sustainable, climate and environmentally friendly mobility. However, in terms of electrically operated cars it has not spread to the full extent of its potential. From the user’s perspective there are two major barriers in buying an electric car: it costs more than a car with an internal combustion engine and also, it has in general a limited range compared to a conventional vehicle. Carsharing with electric vehicles is one promising solution to balance the mentioned high costs and the lack of range: Firstly, the total costs of ownership can be spread among many users and secondly, as a part of the public transport system it can offer a complement for local and long-distance travel. To validate that especially flexible carsharing services with electric cars are suitable in spreading electric mobility, the paper presents a study which was carried out in the city of Berlin comprising several surveys. Expectations and experiences of users with a flexible carsharing offer including exclusively electric vehicles were evaluated and analysed over a period of 1 year. Overall, the results show that most users of flexible e-carsharing have no problem with the specific characteristics of the electric vehicles. Driving range and charging are generally not a limiting factor. For the majority of the users the “e”-component is even a reason to use the offer. Thus, flexible e-carsharing seems to be a good concept to spread electric mobility.