More Australians are choosing to subscribe to a car rather than buy one outright but firms behind the trend say motorists are not using the vehicles as many predicted.
The companies, once described as "the Netflix of cars", say users are not swapping vehicles as often as expected and many are taking out subscriptions to road-test electric vehicles and budget-friendly cars.
The findings come as car subscription services prepare to mark five years in Australia, including Loopit, Carbar and Carly.
Carbar chief executive and co-founder Des Hang said a study of the service's long-term subscribers showed most were not chopping and changing between cars regularly but were instead using subscriptions as a way to stay on a budget.
"The majority of people will initially substitute their main vehicle and then they become quite a sticky customer for us," he said.
"Most people do stick with a vehicle and will take it for a year or a year and a half."
Analysis showed the most popular vehicle subscriptions from Carbar and Loopit were the Hyundai i30 and MG3 in petrol cars, and Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2 in electric vehicles.
The most popular vehicle subscriptions were for two-year-old models, Loopit data showed, while Ford's Ranger was the most popular vehicle over $30,000 and the Range Rover Sport was the top luxury vehicle.
Loopit managing director Michael Higgins said the data also proved car subscriptions were "reshaping the Australian car industry" and showing other nations what was possible.
In coming years, electric vehicles were likely to become a bigger part of the business' offering, Mr Hang said, as more drivers demanded battery-powered cars.
"Our EV penetration is close to 20 per cent of the fleet now," he said.
"We're trying to push the fleet towards sustainability and electric vehicles."
Long-time Carbar user Rob Feltrin said he planned to investigate taking out a Tesla subscription next, replacing the Volkswagen Amarok ute he currently had on loan.
The Sydney human relations executive, who has used the service since 2019, said his family initially sold their cars and took out two car subscriptions to limit debt when getting a bank loan but had enjoyed the convenience of having all vehicle costs in one payment.
"It's the way of the future, I really believe that," he said.
"You don't realise how much you can end up saving on additional vehicle services by having them bundled into one payment."
