For years, the shared mobility conversation focused on vehicles: launching fleets, expanding service areas, and adding new models to keep up with demand.
Today, operators face bigger challenges with the systems around vehicles. These include charging EVs, teaching users how to use them, pricing risk as usage changes, understanding how OEM data works, and seeing how car sharing is becoming part of public transit.
In this issue
Webinar recap: What fleets are learning from integrating EVs
System shift: when public transport and car sharing collaborate
INVERS Academy: Learning the systems behind shared mobility
Insurance Is Becoming a Pressure Point for Carsharing
Why Integrating OEM Vehicle Data Is Harder Than It Looks
Mark your calendars
Webinar Recap: What fleets are learning from integrating EVs
Electrification is picking up speed in both shared and government fleets, but operators are finding that adding EVs takes more than just buying the vehicles.
Infrastructure needs to come before vehicles. Funding and delivery are the easy part. What catches fleets off guard comes after. "A fleet can secure funding and take delivery of electric vehicles, but if there isn't dependable charging infrastructure ready to support them, those vehicles risk sitting idle." – Robert Crawford, County of Ventura.
User education matters more than most fleets expect. The gap isn't always obvious until members start calling. Modo found a simple fix that worked better than anyone anticipated. "Video is the best way. Just show it to me on my phone in under a minute, and I'll get it." – Erin Sullivan, Modo Co-operative.
Mixed charging standards are manageable. As NACS becomes more common, some operators worry about CCS compatibility. Kapil Shah's take on the NACS vs. CCS debate might surprise you, and Modo's low-tech solution to the adapter problem is worth hearing directly.
Data visibility from telematics is key to keeping EV fleets running. Chris Anderson, INVERS Sales Director, says there are three things that matter most for shared EVs: whether the vehicle is plugged in, whether it's charging, and its current charge level. If any one of them is missing when a vehicle is returned, the vehicle may not make it back into service.
System shift: when public transport and car sharing collaborate
Across Europe, public transport operators are increasingly integrating car sharing into their networks through partnerships, MaaS platforms, and even in-house services. Deutsche Bahn and Wiener Linien, for example, run their own fleets, making the transition between modes almost seamless.
Public transit moves people efficiently along main corridors, while car sharing extends its reach to the first and last mile without adding routes or requiring personal vehicles. Together they create a connected mobility ecosystem that rivals private car ownership.
Gunnar Nehrke, managing director of the German Car Sharing Association, describes this as a dense network of transit stops, car sharing stations, and mobility hubs that multiplies the impact of both systems. Evidence supports the model: in Brussels, 70% of Cambio users also hold a public transport subscription, and each shared vehicle replaces several privately owned cars. What began as a series of partnerships now functions as core infrastructure for sustainable urban transport.
INVERS Academy: learning the systems behind shared mobility
Most operators enter car sharing with a clear idea of the vehicles they want to run. The technology question tends to come later, and it usually arrives as: Which platform should we use?
But the more consequential question comes earlier: should you build your own system or buy one that already exists? The answer shapes everything from your launch timeline to how much of your team's time is absorbed by technical maintenance rather than operations.
It's one of the questions INVERS Academy was built around. The free, open-access resource draws on three decades of working with operators across every business model and market condition. The curriculum covers car sharing models, market dynamics, pricing strategy, and operational KPIs, with practical lessons like:
Which car sharing model fits your market, and why the wrong choice is hard to unwind
How to build a pricing strategy around your actual cost structure
Insurance is becoming a pressure point for car sharing
At the end of 2025, the municipal utility in Brühl, near Cologne, shut down its small electric car-sharing fleet—seven vehicles for a town of 630 residents—after insurance premiums were set to more than double to €60,000 a year. Similar programs in Tübingen, Steinburg, and Troisdorf folded for the same reason: operating costs, especially insurance, had outpaced revenue.
The underlying issue is structural. Shared vehicles are driven by more people, less frequently, in unfamiliar conditions. Parking bumps, minor collisions, and vandalism accumulate. Claims ratios climb. For smaller operators, especially those for whom car sharing is a secondary business, managing claims well enough to stay insurable is genuinely difficult.
Telematics can help change that picture. Nicholas Cole, Principal Consultant at AutoMobility Advisors, saw it firsthand at Car2Go: by sharing driving data with insurers, the company demonstrated more predictable risk, and rates declined within a year.
There are tentative signs of relief. BGV, which insures about two-thirds of German car-sharing providers, expects claims cost growth to ease in 2026 after two difficult years; a cautious dose of optimism for the sector.
Why integrating OEM vehicle data is harder than it looks
More fleets are turning to OEM APIs to connect vehicles without additional hardware. Skip the workshop, set up digitally, and the vehicle is ready for sharing in minutes. The pitch is clean. The reality is more complicated.
Most OEM telematics were designed for individual consumers: checking battery levels from an app, locating cars in a parking lot, locking them remotely. Shared fleets need something more robust. Uninterrupted connectivity. Reliable command execution. Consistent data across dozens or hundreds of vehicles from different manufacturers. Consumer-grade systems weren't built to carry that load.
"OEM APIs cannot fully replace dedicated car sharing telematics; they still lack a lot of the basics. In car sharing, uninterrupted connectivity is a must." – Valdrin Shala, Product Manager, INVERS.
Tesla is the current exception. Its API gives operators the controls they need at a reasonable price point, with no formal partnership required. But for mixed fleets, the challenge compounds: different data formats, different command structures, different reliability standards from each manufacturer, with no single system to hold it together.
A busy stretch ahead. Here's where the INVERS team will be over the coming months, and a few events worth knowing about regardless of where you're based.
Shared Mobility Pathways: An Ecosystem Integration Masterclass
April 8–9, 2026 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada INVERS is proud to support Shared Mobility Pathways: An Ecosystem Integration Masterclass, hosted by movmi. This 1.5-day hybrid program (April 8–9, 2026 in Montréal) brings mobility professionals together to explore how cities can move from isolated pilots to fully integrated transportation systems.
As part of our commitment to accelerating real-world implementation, INVERS is offering a $150 discount to support the travel needs of attendees travelling from outside Quebec. This discount applies to all tickets, including early bird pricing. Special pricing available for public agencies and non-profit organizations.
April 13-15, 2026 | Cleveland, Ohio, USA The annual gathering for fleet professionals: education, networking, and solutions across efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Our team will be there. If fleet telematics is on your agenda, let's connect.
May 5, 2026 | Vienna, Austria Two of our INVERS experts will be moderating conference sessions. Stephanie Altemöller will moderate a session on the collaboration between public transport and car sharing. Enrico Howe will moderate a session with researchers and city representatives from Belgium and Germany to discuss how car sharing and shared mobility can reduce private car ownership.
May 5-6, 2026 | Aachen, Germany INVERS Head of Sales Ramu Nair will be presenting exclusive data from the European Car Sharing Barometer, drawing on 129,000 vehicles to examine what separates operators that are growing from those exiting the market. Hardware decisions, AI tools, operational strategy: the numbers tell a specific story.
June 9–12, 2026 | Long Beach, California, USA GFX is one of the largest gatherings for public sector fleet managers in North America. INVERS' Vancouver team will be there and open to meetings. If you're attending, reach out and let's find time.
June 25, 2026 | Düsseldorf, Germany The annual conference of the German Federal Association of Car Sharing. INVERS CEO Alex Kirn will be leading a workshop on OEM connectivity and new approaches to vehicle management, followed by an open panel on which industry trends are actually moving the needle.
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