The Volkswagen Group has named its new 13th brand Moia. The newly formed company will focus on the emerging market for mobility on demand, which Volkswagen is developing as a second pillar to its business alongside the traditional car sales model.

Moia will begin by offering ride hailing in the short term before moving into carpooling and shuttle services using its own purpose-built, battery-powered electric vehicles that will, in time, most likely be self-driving.

The new special-purpose vehicles, or SPVs, will be built by one of Moia’s sister passenger vehicle companies in the group and feature the badges of both firms. It is likely to be unveiled in an early form next year.

Ole Harms, the Chief Executive of Moia and Head of the VW Group’s New Business and Mobility Services, said, “It will be built to purpose, so you could think about special entrances, seating configurations, spaciousness and an electric drivetrain.”

These characteristics could mean that the vehicle may resemble the Volkswagen Budd-E microbus, which was shown as a concept at the Consumer Electronics Show at the beginning of the year. The electric vehicle, based upon the group’s new modular electric vehicle platform (MEB), is likely to go into production before the end of the decade.

Harms said that the new company planned to “leverage all the strengths and capabilities of the Volkswagen Group and use all the technological advantages – such as autonomous cars – to make our services even better, safer and more enjoyable.”

“Moia will develop and market its own mobility services, either independently or in partnership with cities and existing transport systems,” said Harms, speaking about the functions of the new brand.

The company aims to provide mobility for everyone at affordable prices without having to own a car. He said, “The aim is to democratise mobility, which means that we want to operate at a price level that’s comparable with other transport systems”. The idea is that you can summon or book a vehicle via an app on your smartphone.

The second major area of Moia’s business is to set up its own on-demand pooling shuttle services – co-ordinated via an app – from homes to city centres.

Also known as connected commuting, the aim is to optimise the use of the existing road infrastructure by cutting down the number of vehicles travelling between the same points. Moia’s first vehicle pooling pilot projects are scheduled to begin in two European cities in late 2017.

Harms also commented that it is possible the brand may initially use cars with internal combustion engines in some markets in the short term before switching to electric mobility.
He said the company’s intention was not to undermine public transport networks, but to work in collaboration with cities that were open to the prospect of new modes of transport: “We see ourselves as a partner to cities and we aim to complement their public transport systems.”

Moia’s goal is to be among the top three mobility services providers by 2025. Although it is a standalone brand, it will work closely with the other 12 brands in the group that will continue to develop their own mobility solutions.

The new company, based in Berlin, will focus its initial activities in Germany. It will also work in Hamburg where the Volkswagen Group recently struck a three-year strategic mobility partnership with the city to make urban mobility more environmentally friendly, safer, more reliable and more efficient. If the partnership is successful, Hamburg will act as a blueprint for Moia’s future activities in other cities.