Car sharing is growing in Italy, which now counts almost 2 million registered users. Rome and Milan are the leading cities, but there is no shortage of critical issues, which often translate into the closure of shared mobility services.
Car sharing in Italy is popular, and continues to grow. Today the shared mobility fleet in our country, whether for rental or sharing, has surpassed the 1 million mark: every day, for work or tourism purposes, more than 900,000 people use long-term rental services, 130,000 use short-term rental services, and 33,000 use car sharing. A sector that accounts for 11.1 per cent of GDP and 16.6 per cent of tax revenue. Despite this, difficulties are not lacking, both in terms of policy and genuine critical issues that are slowing the trend.
According to the latest Aniasa report — the association that represents the mobility services sector within Confindustria — "in Italy the transition from vehicle ownership to vehicle use is increasingly supported. Today the smart mobility fleet, whether for rental or sharing on Italian roads, has surpassed the 1 million mark." Car sharing in particular has seen its registered user base grow to 1 million and 800,000. With a fleet of 6,600 units, the number of rentals has risen by approximately 27 per cent compared to 2017, reaching almost 12 million contracts. Milan and Rome alone account for 80 per cent of total rentals (9.5 million).
The spread of car sharing not only reduces the volume of urban traffic — one shared vehicle replaces up to eight private cars — but also has a positive impact on reducing air pollution: less than half (if petrol) and two thirds less (if diesel) in carbon monoxide, 50 per cent less nitrogen oxide, and 70 per cent less unburnt hydrocarbon emissions.
While on the one hand the number of cities offering the service is growing — such as Parma, where the IoGuido service will be up and running from May — on the other there are experiences that are not working or have not worked. The most recent case is the Enjoy sharing service in Catania, which will close on 20 May. "Despite our continuous effort to provide an innovative and consistently efficient service, we have not achieved the uptake we had hoped for, and the results in terms of vehicle usage have fallen well short of expectations," the company explains in an email. "Moreover, the repeated and high number of acts of vandalism carried out against our fleet has ultimately forced us to decide to close the service." But there are other cities where car sharing has not worked either, such as Turin, where IoGuido has closed (the others remain active, with one service — BlueTorino — being 100 per cent electric), and Verona.
According to Giuseppe Macchia, vice president of smart mobility at Enjoy, referring to the Milan service: "Shared cars have an accident rate seven times higher than privately owned ones, because users feel protected by the comprehensive insurance that the municipality included in its second tender, and this is an issue that is buckling our knees," as reported by Quattroruote. Meanwhile, clashes between those offering electric rental and those with only internal combustion engine options are not uncommon: the former, in fact, pay no tax to the host municipality.
But for Massimiliano Archiapatti, president of Aniasa, there is great disappointment in the sector over the EU's recent request "to keep the VAT deductibility regime for company cars fixed at 40 per cent for a further three years. A new blow for Italian companies, which must compete every day with European rivals who benefit from 100 per cent deductibility, as well as greater deductibility of mobility costs. The Italian business system requires a revision of the tax rules on company cars, with a rebalancing — even a gradual one — to the levels of other countries. The fact that Germany today enjoys a tax advantage of 100 per cent while Italy has only 19 per cent speaks for itself." Finally, the figure for electric cars is a positive one, accounting for a quarter of the national offering: a zero-emissions option.