Why carsharing is environmentally friendly

• Sustainability: Carsharing is the most environmentally friendly way to drive a car.
• Effectiveness: One Mobility car sharing car replaces an average of 18 private cars in Switzerland. The rate is higher in the cities. In Zurich, there are 21 fewer private cars.
• Mobility behaviour: People who drive carsharing cars make their mobility more environmentally friendly overall.
• Greenhouse gas emissions: Carsharing cars help to make the transport sector more sustainable.
• Conurbations: Carsharing cars mean less traffic in the city centre and less need for parking spaces.

People who use car sharing drive less than the average person, as every journey requires a conscious decision. Instead, users of shared cars are more likely to use public transport, e-bikes, bicycles or e-scooters – or walk. In detail:

• Car sharing is part of multimodal mobility: You can choose the best mode of transport for any journey and even switch seamlessly during the trip if necessary  – car, train, bike... Those who own a car, 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 use public transport more often since signing up for carsharing. Many members also walk or cycle frequently.

• The results of the mobility study will be supported by further studies. How car mileage fell in carsharing households in Bremen by half compared to average households in terms of mobility. Carsharing households shifted some of the distances previously travelled by car to public transport. There is also evidence that cooperation between carsharing and public transport increases the use of environmentally friendly means of transport strengthens. Concrete according to the German Carsharing Association, a third of German carsharing users cycle more often, 40 per cent use buses and trains more often and 70 per cent drive less. A study in France puts it like this: More shared kilometres mean fewer individual car kilometres.

• Here you can calculate the environmental impact of different modes of transport.

• Households without their own car show the following consumer behaviour no rebound effectnot even with regard to air travel: These households therefore do not spend the money they save by not owning a car on forms of mobility that are even more harmful to the environment than their own car.
   

Carsharing cars make a large number of private cars superfluous. This has a positive effect on greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. In detail:

• 1 carsharing car replaces an average of 18 private cars. In rural regions of Switzerland, this figure is 9.5, in cities it rises to 23. Fewer private cars means fewer cars that need to be manufactured. This not only saves resources, but also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions generated during production.
• 15 per cent of Mobility members have got rid of one or more cars, half of them because of the 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, carsharing vehicles are more environmentally friendly than the average private car for two other reasons: Firstly, they tend to be younger than the private car population. Thanks to car sharing, more efficient and therefore more environmentally friendly cars are on the roads. Secondly, the proportion of electric models at Mobility is higher than the average for Swiss private cars. And electric cars are known to be more sustainable than combustion engines. Locally, they even cause no emissions at all. It is therefore not surprising that car sharing fleets significantly lower CO₂ emissions than the average passenger car 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 Swiss cars are 112.7 grams per kilometre. The Mobility passenger car fleet undercuts the new CO2 emission regulations that came into force in 2025 of 93.6 grams per kilometre already.
   

Many cities today are suffocating in traffic. And the mass of parked cars is preventing the transition to more liveable neighbourhoods. Carsharing helps in two ways:

1. Carsharing reduces inner-city traffic

• Car sharing users drive less. They are travelling more by means of transport that reduce the burden on cities: by e-bike, bike, e-scooter, bus, train – or on foot. As a result, there are fewer cars in the cities.
• The study shows that large cities and conurbations, where the volume of motorised traffic is highest, benefit particularly from this change in user behaviour: In Basel, one car-sharing car even replaces 23 vehicles, in Geneva and Zurich 21 each.
• Car sharing thus contributes to lower local traffic emissions: less particulate matter and fewer exhaust fumes.
• If there are fewer cars on the road, there is also less traffic noise. This further improves the urban quality of life.

2. Carsharing reduces the need for parking spaces

• As carsharing makes many private cars superfluous, the need for parking spaces in cities is decreasing. Even a simple rough calculation makes this clear: If an average of 18 private cars are replaced by a Mobility vehicle, 17 fewer parking spaces are required. Illustrated using the example of lengthways parking on a road: That would be 17 parking spaces each five metres less, i.e. 85 metres less! By comparison: A football pitch is 100 metres long.
• A lower demand for parking spaces also means lower investment and maintenance costs for car parks. The investment costs for car parks alone vary considerably in Switzerland. But the following Standard valuesgive an idea. A simple uncovered parking space costs around CHF 15'000, while an underground car park costs around CHF 40'000.
• New residential concepts are favoured by fewer parking spaces, as is also the case in Switzerland realisedthe aim is to become car-free or low-car construction. In such neighbourhoods, the usual specifications 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... Instead of the mandatory one to three parking spaces per residential unit, one tenth of the parking spaces per residential unit are usually sufficient in such neighbourhoods. This creates more liveable space.