The broader concept is that of sharing economy, defined by the vice president of Eni Enjoy, Giuseppe Macchia, as "a new business and consumption model based on reuse and not on purchase, on access and not on possession". Applied to car sharing, we then talk about smart mobility. Both concepts are closely linked, to use an Italian expression for once, to energy efficiency.
It has been discussed in Rome in the last two days, in a conference organized at Palazzo Rospigliosi by "Friends of the Earth". All the big names in Italian eco-sustainability were there, from utilities to environmental associations. There was also Enjoy, the all-Italian car sharing company born from the partnership between Eni, Ferrovie dello Stato and Fiat, which supplies the car fleet of 1.300 red Cinquecentos distributed between Milan, Rome and Florence.
The car sharing startup is just celebrating one year of life (but it has only been active since June in Rome and a few weeks in Florence) and in this period of time it has managed to overtake its German competitor Car2Go, which arrived in Italy in 2012 and present in the same three cities: both companies travel around 150 registered users, with a growing trend that will make 2015, according to Time, "the year of the consecration of car sharing".
Car sharing which has always been included among the 10 ideas that will change the world by the prestigious English magazine. And indeed they are already changing it, within the large container of the sharing economy, which ranges from mobility, with Uber, to tourism, with Air BnB and Tripadvisor, to music, with Spotify, to shopping, with eBay. After the era of individual ownership, the era of sharing is born. “Thanks to technology – he explains Simone Serafini, Commercial Director of Enjoy -, without which, if we think of the possibility of using apps via smartphone, none of this would be possible, there has also been a democratization of services: they can be reached anytime, anywhere, and at moderate costs”.
Like those of Enjoy, which in the panorama of private Italian car sharing currently offers the most competitive rates (0,25 cents per minute and 0,10 when parked) and which is now also preparing to launch the challenge of scooter sharing: the Municipality of Milan, a pioneer of smart mobility for years, has formalized the arrival of the new service for Expo 2015 (it starts on March 21 according to what was declared by the Councilor for Transport Pierfrancesco Maran), and it will be Enjoy, through of the vehicles specifically designed and produced by Piaggio, to supply the fleet.
But because car sharing is also energy efficiency? “First of all, it is sustainability: our cars – explains Serafini – are all Euro 5 and Euro 6 and are constantly checked. And then car sharing means that 7-8 people use the same car for several hours a day, while a private car is used by a single person and on average for a few minutes a day”. Which inevitably means less CO2 emissions, less traffic and more parking available.
A revolution, thanks also to the so-called second generation car sharing: “Before, the service was offered by the public body and therefore was subject to precise rules of registration, booking and delivery of the vehicle. Now with private car sharing we have dematerialized everything: registration is free, it takes place quickly via the app and the car can be found anywhere, without reserving it if it is already available, and leaving it anywhere”. The new way of conceiving mobility even taxi drivers like it: “They don't have it with car sharing but with Uber. In car sharing there are no drivers: you rent the car but you have to drive it yourself, it's another type of service. And the fact that thanks to this people are less inclined to buy private cars can also benefit taxi drivers".
So, if the problem isn't the taxi drivers, what is it that hinders, apparently for a little while longer, the definitive diffusion of car sharing throughout Italy? “Definitely the municipal tenders – admits Serafini -: different city by city and complicated, a single model should be studied”. The usual bureaucracy that slows down the new that advances where, elsewhere in the world, the sharing economy has already become a model not only of consumption but also of business to make the financial giants pale. Just think that Uber is about to land on the Stock Exchange with a capitalization of around 35-40 billion dollars, equal to 1,5 times that of Twitter and three times that of competitor Hertz (11,3 billion). Among the American startups of this type and age (it was born in 2010 in San Francisco) Uber is considered the largest ahead of Dropbox and Air BnB, also protagonists of the sharing economy and also with an 11-digit capitalization.
