Vienna car-sharing companies - services, apps and prices

Owning a car is definitely convenient – but is it really worth it if you only need it from time to time, and only for a couple of hours at that? Conventional car rental can surely help, but since most car rental companies expect you to rent their cars for at least one day, it’s not always the best option.

There’s a convenient alternative, though – car sharing!

What is car sharing?

Car sharing is a kind of car rental, but it’s different from traditional car rental companies in a number of ways.

Car sharing allows you to rent a car for only a few hours and at any time, not just during business hours.

Moreover, the cars of car-sharing companies are usually parked all around the city, so at any given time you’re likely to have at least one such car near you, meaning you won’t have to travel far to use it.

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At this point, you might be thinking to yourself: that all sounds great, but is car sharing cheaper than owning a car or renting one from a conventional rent-a-car?

Well, the truth is that it depends on how much you need to use a car. If you need it every day, then buying one is perhaps not a bad idea, but if you only need it for a couple of hours every once in a while, you might want to consider car-sharing.

For college students, for example, it could be a great alternative due to its affordability and flexibility, but you don’t have to be a student to appreciate its benefits.

Car sharing insurance

Insurance is an important thing – you never know what might happen on the road! So how does it work when it comes to car sharing? It’s very simple – most car sharing companies already include it in the price of their service, so you don’t need to concern yourself with it!

However, it’s always best to make sure that this is really the case by checking the policies of each company.

Car sharing services in Vienna

• Getaround – this app offers peer to peer car sharing, which means you’ll be renting a vehicle directly from its owner.
• DriveNow – a car-sharing service through which you can rent a BMW or MINI – and the latest models, at that!
• BlaBlaCar – this one’s a bit different from the others in this list because it’s a carpooling app which connects drivers with spare room in their car and people travelling the same way. A big plus is that BlaBlaCar welcomes car sharing for long-distance, so if you want to travel from Vienna to, say, Prague, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride while someone else does the driving for you!
• Eloop – an app which specializes in “e-carsharing”, meaning car sharing of electric cars. So if you’re an eco-conscious driver, this one’s for you!
• Car2go – the world's first free-floating carsharing service. This means they don’t have fixed rental stations; instead, their cars are spread all around the city and when you’re done using one of them, you can just park it anywhere in the Home Area of Vienna! And that’s to give you just a few examples. If none of these satisfies you, we’re sure you’ll find many more!

Car sharing in Vienna – Prices

Prices can get the cost of living in Vienna higher. Here is how much you can expect to be charged by each of the services mentioned above:

So, do you think you’ll give car sharing a go? Try it – we’re sure you’ll find it to be a great new way to get around the city!