That is the question Mareile Wiegmann, Imre Keseru and Cathy Macharis tried to answer in their article about carsharing in Brussels.
Small upfront reminder:
Free-floating = you take the car somewhere in a specified zone (Brussels for example) and you have to bring it back after your trip somewhere else in this zone.
Pricing is usually done by minute.
Example: Poppy Mobility
Station-based = you book your car (or van) at a specific station, after your trip, you bring it back at the same station (and sometimes even exactly the same parking spot).
Pricing is based on a subscription and a fee by hour/day + km used
Example: Cambio Brussels or Zen Car
Some facts:
📌 Free-floating users own a car, station-based users do not.
See the pie chart below that illustrates it:
📌 Station-based car sharing is used as an alternative to owning a car.
In this context, the mobility budget can help. Indeed for people using their company car only 1 or 2 weekends a month (and holidays), it is a solution.
📌 There are a lot of reason to use such cars: visiting someone, leisure or shopping
📌 Free-floating seems to have a slight impact on public transport usage, station-based does not.
