Millennials Embracing Idea of Car Sharing

Millennials Embracing Idea of Car Sharing:

Apparently pride of owning one’s own car is disappearing with today’s 18-34 year-olds – the so-called Millennials.

Zipcar (www.zipcar.com), the world’s leading car-sharing network with 650,000 members sharing 9,000 vehicles, recently conducted a research study among licensed drivers of all ages. The company says 53 percent of Millennials surveyed indicated they would likely partake in a car-sharing service, like Zipcar. It found that Millennials still value the mobility factor and convenience of driving but increasingly seek and use alternatives to personally owning a car.

The survey also revealed that 55 percent of Millennials surveyed have actively made an effort to drive less, up 10 percentage points from 45 percent in 2010, highlighting the growing trend of consciously reducing road time.

Some of the factors that Millennials cite for driving less frequently include environmental concerns, total cost of vehicle ownership and an increased use of social media. More than half of Millennials surveyed stated “protecting the environment” as one key reason for driving less, also up 10 percentage points from 45 percent last year.

“In our second year of this survey, we continue to see dramatic shifts in how Millennials think about personal transportation, the environment and social media,” said Scott Griffith, chairman and CEO of Zipcar. “One trend is abundantly clear: Millennials welcome the collaborative consumption movement with open arms, which we believe points to strong adoption of car sharing as a mainstream transportation solution for this influential segment of the population. Policy makers should also take notice and accept that our youngest generation will not think about transportation the way we have for the last hundred years, nor will future generations.”

Not surprisingly older respondents were far less likely to consider car sharing as a viable option. Nor were they as likely to admit to driving less.

If you’re between 18 and 34 years old, would you rather own a car or share one with others to save money and the environment? Are young people of today really different from young people of previous generations? What does this mean, if anything, for the future of the car industry?

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