BERLIN, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- With 25,400 vehicles available for car-sharing in Germany at the beginning of 2020, the number of vehicles for car-sharing increased by 25.7 percent within one year, the Federal CarSharing Association (bcs) announced on Tuesday.
At the same time, the number of car-sharing companies shot up from 45 to 226 as such services are now offered in 840 locations across Germany, 100 more than last year, the bcs stated.
The German car-sharing industry "continues to grow", bcs noted. However, the organized joint use of one or more cars still remained a "small market" in Germany with just over 2 million customers.
Car-sharing was "an important component of sustainable mobility," said Gunnar Nehrke, managing director of the bcs.
The association noted that car-sharing was "not only a phenomenon of big cities." At the beginning of 2020, car-sharing was available in around half of Germany's municipalities with between 20,000 and 50,000 inhabitants.
In smaller municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, however, the share was considerably lower at only 4.3 percent, while car-sharing providers could be found in almost all large cities.
The association noted that car-sharing was "also possible in rural areas," although it was "generally not a sustainable business model in itself" as it was often supported by voluntary associations or co-financed by local authorities.
Car-sharing was the "ecological alternative to the private car," said Nehrke, urging federal and local governments to systematically promote car-sharing. Enditem
