Carplus’ annual car club survey reveals diversification and expansion

The fastest growing urban car clubs (in England and Wales) outside London are York, Manchester and Brighton & Hove, whilst other major cities such as Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford have car club operations that are expanding.

The latest annual survey by Carplus, the national body for the car club sector, paints a picture of growth in membership, car numbers and geographic coverage. The results of the survey, managed by consultant Steer Davies Gleave, are set out in three reports: One covering England and Wales, one for London and one for Scotland.

Carplus director Alistair Kirkbride says: “Car clubs are no longer seen as an ‘alternative’ option, but rather an attractive part of a mobility mix alongside public transport, taxis, walking and cycling.”

Over the past five years, there has been sustained growth in car club membership – to over 27,500 members using almost 1,100 vehicles in England and Wales outside London. New operations have been launched in Barnstaple, Carlisle, Derby, Newbury and Salford and local authorities such as Birmingham and the Isle of Wight are considering the feasibility of developing or expanding clubs, reports Kirkbride.

Car clubs across England and Wales are currently provided by a mixture of commercial and not-for-profit operators, and significant innovation is taking place.

In the commercial sector developments include the car hire companies entering the sector, with Enterprise Holdings buying City Car Club and Europcar buying E-Car Club. 

Co-wheels, the UK’s largest independent operator, is piloting electric bikes alongside cars and targeting visitor markets in the Lake District. Co-cars, a co-operative in south-west England, is also offering electric bikes as well as services to small independent operations.

There are around two dozen independent and not-for-profit car clubs operating in the UK, often serving single or small clusters of communities. “These clubs, which are mainly constituted as co-operatives or community interest companies, have largely been established by local people to serve local populations,” says Kirkbride. “The expansion of car clubs serving rural communities continues apace with new clubs established over the past year, including Bakewell, Ilkeston, Frome and Harbury.”

Carplus itself delivered 23 projects between July 2014 and March 2016 via the Developing Car Clubs in England (DCCE) project, which was funded by the Department for Transport. “The projects include the first city-scale integration of car clubs into city-wide SMART card accounts in Leeds and Nottingham and an expansion of car club provision in Norwich,” he says. “In addition, a broad variety of car clubs of different scales have also been supported.

“These have demonstrated how the car club model can fit into a wide variety of different types of places and at different scales, being led by local authorities or communities. It has also allowed us to develop robust understanding of the economic value of car clubs and to better understand success factors for car club development.”

The DCCE programme led to the creation of 15 new car clubs serving 43 communities. Over 140 car club cars have been added to the network, including 28 electric vehicles (EVs). “Whilst electric vehicles are increasingly being integrated into car club fleets, financial and operational barriers to their widespread adoption still exist. The car club sector is committed to their adoption,” he says.

Kirkbride also flags up the emergence of peer-to-peer (P2P) operators such as easyCar club, Rentacarlo, DriveJoy and HiyaCar. “Carplus are watching with interest how the peer-to-peer rental model will develop as a complement to more traditional fleet based car sharing models,” says Kirkbride. “We are particularly interested in how P2P may offer the benefits of car sharing in areas where dedicated car club cars may not currently be viable, such as lower density and rural settlements. 

“Market observers such as Frost & Sullivan predict a further 10-fold rise in car club membership by 2020, based on an expanding range of car-sharing models. The rise of the sharing economy as well as evidence from countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland, indicate significant untapped potential of car clubs to reduce the impacts of car traffic, support active travel and facilitate modal integration.”

The Carplus Annual Survey 2015/16 was completed by 2,500 car club members in England and Wales (excluding London) from a total of 27,585.