The Growing Popularity of Car-Sharing in Prague 

There are now almost 1200 shared cars in the city.

According to the operator of the world’s largest network of these cars, the market for car sharing in the Czech Republic is three times higher than what it used to be. Due to the pandemic, they have boosted their popularity.

The Czech Republic’s biggest car-sharing company HoppyGo reported an 80 percent increase in the number of car rentals last year, while the number of registered users increased by 50 percent to over 100,000.

“Part of our clients stopped using our services because they are working from home, but other clients started using the services to avoid overcrowded public transport,” said the technical director of HoppyGo.

According to company estimates, the potential for car-sharing is up to three times higher than at present.

Milan Beutl, director of the Czech representation of Anytime says: “Awareness of the service is expanding significantly, and carsharing in Prague is still growing and evolving.”

He adds “there is still room for further development of carsharing in Prague and we expect that shared cars will experience further growth in interest in 2022.”

According to experts, carsharing services, along with well-functioning public transport and taxis, can make part of society decide not to own a car. “In a large Prague-like agglomeration, one shared car can replace up to ten parked cars in the streets,” explains Kryštof Kruliš, Chairman of the Consumer Forum Board.

Nowadays, shared cars are mainly driven by younger people in their twenties and thirties who do not have their own car.

Carsharing is the perfect alternative for them: they download the app, take a picture of their driver’s license, ID, and drive.

The advantage of shared cars is that drivers can park in blue zones for free in Prague. Cars are mostly equipped with automatic transmission and parking camera.