Car sharing with Mobility
This is why car sharing is good for the environment
30.01.2025
If you need a car, car sharing is the best solution for the environment. This is underlined by a new study by Mobility: One Mobility car eliminates the need for 18 privately owned cars. And those who use car sharing plan their journeys more consciously and are more likely to opt for more sustainable means of transport.
Key points at a glance
Sustainability. Car sharing is the most environmentally friendly way to drive a car.
Effectiveness: A Mobility car sharing car replaces an average of 18 privately owned cars in Switzerland. The rate is higher in the cities. There are 21 fewer private cars in Zurich. You can find the study here.
Mobility behaviour: Those who use car-sharing cars make their mobility more environmentally friendly overall.
Greenhouse gas emissions: Car sharing cars help to make the transport sector more sustainable.
Agglomerations: Car-sharing cars mean less inner-city traffic and less need for parking spaces.
Car sharing is changing mobility behaviour
People who use car sharing drive less than the average person, because each journey requires a conscious decision. Instead, users of shared cars are more often using public transport, e-bikes, bicycles or e-scooters – or walking. The details:
- Car sharing is a part of multi-modal mobility: The optimal means of transport can be selected for every journey and, if necessary, can be seamlessly switched during the journey – car, train, bicycle… Those who call a car their own, on the other hand, tend to use it frequently because the car is there. This often happens even if there are better organisational or financial alternatives.
- 15 per cent of Mobility members have used public transport more since signing up for car sharing. Furthermore, many members often walk or cycle.
The results of the Mobility study will be supported by further studies. How mileage by car fell in car-sharing households in Bremen by half compared to average households in terms of mobility. Some of the distances previously travelled by car were moved over to public transport by the car-sharing households. There is also evidence that the cooperation between car sharing and public transport reduces the use of environmentally friendly means of transport strengthens.
Specifically, According to the German Car-Sharing Association (Bundesverband Carsharing), one third of German car-sharing users cycle more often, 40 per cent use buses and trains more often, and 70 per cent drive less. A study in France expresses it as follows: more shared kilometres always means fewer kilometres travelled individually.
Here you can calculate the environmental impact of different modes of transport.
Incidentally, households without their own car show in terms of consumer behaviour no rebound effect, including air travel: These households do not spend the money they save by not having their own car on forms of mobility that are even more harmful to the environment than their own car.
«If we want to overcome the mobility challenges in Switzerland, we need a significantly higher proportion of car sharing in the mobility mix.»Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher
“1:18 – or how Mobility takes the pressure off Swiss roads”
- Study details
Car sharing reduces greenhouse gas emissions from transport
Car sharing makes a large number of privately owed cars redundant. This has a positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. The details:
One car sharing car replaces an average of 18 private cars. In rural areas of Switzerland, this figure is 9.5, while in cities it rises to 23. Fewer privately owed cars means fewer cars that have to be manufactured. This not only saves resources, but also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions caused by production.
- 15 per cent of Mobility members have got rid of one or more cars, half of them because of their Mobility subscription. Specifically, the number of vehicles in the households of Mobility members fell by 20 to 50 per cent compared to the twelve months prior to registering with Mobility.
- On average, car-sharing vehicles are more environmentally friendly than the average private car for two other reasons. Firstly, they tend to be newer than most privately owned cars. Car sharing means there are more efficient and thus more environmentally friendly cars on the roads. Secondly, Mobility’s share of electric models is higher than the average for private cars in Switzerland. And, as we all know, electricity generators are more sustainable than combustion engines. With respect to the local environment, they even cause no emissions at all. So it’s no surprise that car-sharing fleets significantly lower CO₂ emissions than the average passenger cars registered in Europe – even if the entire sharing fleet is not yet electric. The average CO₂ emissions of Mobility passenger cars is 86.3 grams per kilometre. By comparison: The average CO₂ emissions of new cars in Switzerland are 112.7 grams per kilometre. The Mobility fleet of passenger cars is undercutting the new CO2 emission regulations that entered into force in 2025 of 93.6 grams per kilometre.
«Mobility’s convinced that the answer to Switzerland’s mobility challenges is more car sharing.»Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher
Car sharing creates space and makes cities more liveable
Many cities are drowning in traffic these days. And the mass of parked cars prevents the transformation of areas into more liveable neighbourhoods. Car sharing helps in two ways:
1. Car sharing reduces inner-city traffic
- Users of car sharing drive less. They use more means of transport that take the pressure off city traffic and infrastructure: e-bikes, bicycles, e-scooters, buses, trains – or they walk. This means that there are fewer cars on the roads.
The study shows that large cities and conurbations in particular, where the volume of motorised traffic is highest, benefit in particular from this change in usage behaviour: One car-sharing vehicle replaces 23 vehicles in Basel and 21 in Geneva and Zurich.
- This means that car sharing contributes to lower local traffic emissions, meaning fewer particulates and fewer exhaust gases.
Fewer cars on the road also means less traffic noise. This further improves people’s quality of life in the city.
2. Car sharing reduces the need for parking spaces
- Since car sharing eliminates the need for many privately owned cars, the demand for parking spaces in cities is reduced. Even a simple calculation of the estimate makes it clear: If a Mobility vehicle replaces 18 privately owned cars on average, 17 parking spaces are needed. Using the example of parallel parking along a road: That would mean 17 parking spaces each five metres less, i.e. 85 metres less! By comparison: A football pitch is 100 metres long.
A lower need for parking spaces also means lower investment and maintenance costs for parking space. The investment costs for parking alone vary considerably in Switzerland. However, the following Guide values give you an idea. A simple, uncovered parking costs around CHF 15,000 and an underground parking space around CHF 40,000.
Fewer parking spaces will encourage new living concepts, such as those in Switzerland implemented car-free or low-car construction. In these kinds of neighbourhoods, the usual requirements for the number of parking spaces to be planned per residential unit do not apply. After all, many people who live in the city don’t have a car anyway. Instead, they use bicycles, cargo bikes, car sharing, etc. Instead of obligatory one to three parking spaces per residential unit, one tenth of the parking spaces per residential unit is usually sufficient in such neighbourhoods. This creates more liveable space.