New guidelines highlight support for car sharing, regulate auto rental industry

China’s Ministry of Transport ( MOT) issued guidelines on regulating the country’s fastgrowing car- rental sector on Tuesday and signaled that the government is supporting car sharing in cities to ease traffic congestion and other city mobility issues.

The guidelines, issued jointly with the Ministry of Urban Housing and Urban- Rural Development, focus on encourag- ing car sharing by improving city infrastructure and creating a better business environment, and improving services and safety by tightening regulations of car- rental companies.

The new guidelines published on the MOT’s website also highlighted the government’s support for car sharing, which it says could help address city mobility issues. China should fully realize the advantages of car sharing in order to address city mobility issues, the guidelines stated.

Yang Tao, chairman of the Nanjing Institute of City and Transport Planning Co, said that sound development of the car- sharing industry is necessary for meeting a growing demand for such services as well as addressing problems in the industry.

However, “We shouldn’t encourage car sharing as much as we do other sharing services such as bike sharing,” Yang said, noting while car sharing could help ease city traffic congestion, it still takes up a lot of city resources, which are already limited.

Also, Yang cautioned that the government’s role should be focused on regulation and guidance, letting the market do the rest. “That’s very important for the long- term development of the industry,” he said.

Though the country’s carrental sector has been growing quickly in recent years, it is still lagging behind developed countries, especially in areas such as the number of cars and services, the MOT said.

Currently more than 6,300 car- rental companies have registered in China with a total of 200,000 cars, an increase of 20 percent yearly, according to the ministry.

However, nearly 93 percent of the companies only have less than 50 cars, while the top 5 car- rental companies like Shenzhou Zuche and eHi account for 20 percent of the market.