Autonomous vehicles will disrupt market starting in 2027
Car sharing services such as Lyft and Uber will reduce new-vehicle sales worldwide by only 1% by 2021, according to a new report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). But autonomous vehicles (AVs) will change the game, erasing the distinction between car sharing and ride sharing and offering users a significant edge in the total cost of ownership, BCG says. Still, AVs will not arrive in significant numbers until 2027, so all parties have time to prepare.
North America is currently the third largest market for car sharing worldwide, after Asia-Pacific and Europe. It is less prevalent in North America because car sharing makes more sense in densely populated urban areas. Still, about 6 million North Americans are likely to be registered with a car sharing service by 2021.
At that point, AVsê low operating costs will enable operators of mobility services to provide adequate coverage in smaller cities, resulting in an upsurge of registered users, an influx of car sharing fleets in smaller cities, and increasing forgone car sales, says BCG (emphasis added).
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