Carsharing or car sharing or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often private individuals themselves, and the carsharing facilitator is generally distinct from the car owner. Carsharing is part of a larger trend of shared mobility.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an American car rental agency headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. Enterprise is the flagship brand of Enterprise Holdings, which also owns other agencies including Alamo Rent a Car and National Car Rental. The company has historically concentrated on what it calls "home city" rentals, often people renting a car while their own was being repaired, but has expanded to airport-based rentals, especially after its parent company's acquisition of Alamo and National in 2007.
A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches, and primarily located near airports or busy city areas and often complemented by a website allowing online reservations.
Share Now GmbH is a German carsharing company, formed from the merger of Car2Go and DriveNow. Since 2022, it is a subsidiary of the Free2Move division of multinational automaker Stellantis providing carsharing services in urban areas in Europe, and formerly in North America. It has over four million registered members and a fleet of over 14,000 vehicles in 18 cities across Europe.
Turo is an American peer-to-peer carsharing company based in San Francisco, United States. The company allows private car owners to rent out their vehicles via an online and mobile interface in 4 countries.
GoCar is the first Carsharing service in Ireland. GoCar members can book cars online or via the app for as little as an hour, then unlock with their phone or GoCard; the keys are in the car, with fuel, insurance and city parking all included. Rates start from €10 per hour, with 50 km of driving included on each trip. GoCar now has over 10,000 members and operates a fleet of over 300 cars across 200+ locations in Ireland. Drivers can visit GoCar.ie to request a GoCar in their community. It launched in Cork in September 2008, with the support of Cork City Council as a pilot scheme. Cork City Council gave GoCar use of 3 car parking locations in Cork City as part of a wider pilot scheme.
Peer-to-peer carsharing is the process whereby existing car owners make their vehicles available for others to rent for short periods of time.
Getaround is an online car sharing or peer-to-peer carsharing service that connects drivers who need to reserve cars with car owners who share their cars in exchange for payment.
Uber Carshare is an Australian company that facilitates peer-to-peer car rental, a system by which individuals may rent privately owned vehicles on an hourly or daily basis to other registered users of the service. It currently operates in locations across Australia including Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Hobart, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth and announced plans to expand to other Australian cities and airports.
DriveNow was a one-way carsharing service wholly owned by the automotive manufacturer BMW. In 2019, DriveNow and car2go, a carsharing service from Daimler AG, merged to form the global mobility provider Share Now, with a combined fleet of 20,000 vehicles in 31 cities in 14 countries and over four million members worldwide. Share Now is one of the five mobility services which are part of the mobility joint venture of the BMW Group and the Daimler AG.
Enterprise Holdings is an American private holding company headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It is the parent company of car rental agencies Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent a Car and also operates several other transportation services including commercial fleet management, used car sales, carsharing, and commercial truck rental operations.
City Carshare was a carsharing program that operated in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting in 2001. It rented vehicles by the hour. In November 2016, the company effectively ceased operations, when Getaround, a for-profit, carsharing company, took over City CarShare's fleet, parking spaces, and member base.
JustShareIt was a peer-to-peer car rental and car sharing marketplace. It allowed individuals to rent vehicles directly from individual car owners or car sharing companies in local neighborhood locations.
Yourdrive was a New Zealand peer-to-peer carsharing company. Prior to ceasing operations it facilitated a system in which individuals could rent their privately owned vehicles on an hourly, daily or weekly basis to other registered users of the service. Owners set their rental prices and earn a 60 percent commission from the rental revenue. Prior to going out of business it operated throughout New Zealand with vehicles in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin.
Bolt is an Estonian mobility company that offers ride-hailing, micromobility rental, food and grocery delivery, and carsharing services. The company is headquartered in Tallinn and operates in over 500 cities in more than 45 countries in Europe, Africa, Western Asia and Latin America. The company has more than 150 million customers and more than 3 million driver and courier partners. The company has plans for an initial public offering in 2025.
Maven was a car sharing service launched by General Motors (GM) in 2016. It provided services such as carsharing and peer-to-peer car sharing for personal use and also rented to drivers of gig economy professions such as Uber and Lyft. It operated in select cities in the United States, Canada and Australia until ceasing operations in 2020.
Evo is a carsharing service in Greater Vancouver and Victoria, created by the British Columbia Automobile Association. The company offers exclusively Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles with roof-top bike racks and features one-way point-to-point rentals. Users are charged by the minute, with hourly and daily rates available. Launched in March 2015, it currently serves most of Vancouver, and selected destinations in neighboring cities. In August 2021, the service was brought to Victoria. The company is considering moving into the Tri-Cities area in the future.
GIG Car Share is a carsharing service in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Seattle, created by A3 Ventures. The company operates a fleet of Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles and all-electric Chevrolet Bolts. It offers one-way point-to-point rentals.
One-way carsharing is a type of carsharing that enables users to begin and end their trip at different locations. The pick-up and drop-off locations can be either restricted to traditional rental stations, or can be anywhere within an operational area in what is called free-floating carsharing.
