VW mobilizes automotive mobility with ride sharing & more

MOIA ? das neue Unternehmen für Mobilitätsdienste im Volkswagen KonzernThe Volkswagen Group launched its new mobility services company MOIA. With MOIA, the automaker claims it is systematically driving forward its transformation into a globally leading provider of sustainable mobility. The service will be headquartered in Berlin and provide mobility services including carpooling with Get. In the future ma offer autonomous driving rides.

With MOIA, Europe’s largest automaker is laying the foundations throughout the Group and across all brands for sustained success in tomorrow’s world of mobility. What is more, the Volkswagen Group intends to generate a substantial share of its sales revenue from this new business by 2025.

MOIA is a stand-alone company under the Volkswagen Group umbrella, and will develop and market its own mobility services either independently or in partnership with cities and existing transport systems. In parallel, the Group brands will continue to move forward with their own services. Volkswagen’s news release states that VW isset on becoming one of the global top players for mobility services in the medium term

The Volkswagen Group’s new company, which will be headquartered in Berlin, will begin operating with a team of around 50 – with this number growing fast up to the end of 2017.

A further important location in Germany for MOIA will be the city of Hamburg. Back in the fall, the Volkswagen Group and the Hanseatic city agreed a three-year strategic mobility partnership to make urban mobility more environmentally-friendly, safer, more reliable and more efficient. The findings from this partnership will also be incorporated in future MOIA projects in Europe.

As part of the Volkswagen Group, MOIA can harness the product strength and innovative power as well as the infrastructure of the other 12 Group brands.

The management team of MOIA is made up of Ole Harms (CEO), Dr. Frank Dilger (CFO) and Robert Henrich (COO), who will take up his post on January 1, 2017. An Advisory Committee chaired by Thomas Sedran, Head of Group Strategy at Volkswagen AG, will support MOIA’s leadership team.

Individual mobility for everyone – that is what MOIA stands for. Convenient, at the touch of a button, at affordable prices and without having to own your own car. The biggest potential for MOIA in a first step is business in ride hailing via app. The Volkswagen Group already opened the way for new mobility concepts with its stake in Gett, one of the world’s leading ride hailing providers. Gett app users can already instantly book on-demand transportation, delivery and logistics in more than 100 cities worldwide.

Together with Gett VW is pursuing a clearly defined expansion strategy in Europe – only recently, three of the Group’s brands launched the first joint initiative with attractive vehicle packages for Gett drivers in the growth market of Moscow.

At the same time, MOIA is also focusing on the second major area, namely the pooling business. The company’s goal is to set up its own on-demand pooling services via app – also known as connected commuting. The objective is holistic transport solutions that make individual transport and public transport more effective, thus avoiding unnecessary journeys and optimizing use of the existing road infrastructure. This approach concentrates on cross-boundary transport. The first pilot projects in this field are scheduled to begin in 2017.