The growth of the world’s population has brought with it mobility problems such as traffic, noise pollution caused by it, increased road accidents and lack of accessibility to private transportation, coupled with the increase of environmental problems such as air pollution and emission of toxic gases potentially causing climate change.

Undoubtedly, one way to alleviate the above problems and take advantage of vehicles in a more efficient way is shared mobility, because the future of large cities lies precisely in moving in more environmentally friendly vehicles; for example, travel on foot, by bicycle, in zero emission vehicles and shared.

Shared mobility refers to the use of the same vehicle to transport several people at the same time, and includes carpooling, ridesharing, carsharing and on-demand transportation services.

Environmental impact and investment

In the Latin American and Caribbean region, transportation accounts for more than 20% of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and is the cause of other pollutants caused by internal combustion engines that are a danger to human health and the planet.

According to experts, shared mobility represents an important advance towards the sustainability of large cities, as it constitutes a compendium of efficient solutions that enable the transportation of a greater number of people with less energy expenditure and, consequently, with lower CO2 emissions.

According to a McKinsey report, shared mobility has surpassed a market value of more than 60 billion dollars worldwide, with an estimated annual growth of 20 percent. With a size of $24 billion and $23 billion respectively, China and the United States are the largest markets in this area.

There are currently more than 600 cities in the world where it is possible to use these services.

Types of shared mobility

1. Carpooling and ridesharing

Both carpooling and ridesharing refer to the connection of users with registered vehicles. The main difference lies in the type of journey to be made; while carpooling is designed for short distances, such as commuting to work, ridesharing is for sharing vehicles on long and sporadic journeys, such as a trip.

The main objective of these modalities is to divide the costs between the users and not necessarily that the driver earns more money, since it is considered a trip that was going to be made anyway.

Nowadays there are apps that connect individuals with individuals to provide them with the service.

2. Carsharing

In the case of carsharing, it is no longer a service between individuals, but companies that rent motorcycles and cars, many of them electric, for certain periods of time.

This type of travel is functional for those who want to make sporadic use of a vehicle, since the apps allow the user to locate the nearest vehicle and make the reservation, in addition, the cost will depend on the time of use.

As we can see, shared mobility represents an emerging market, where many investors are injecting capital.