VW Gears Up For Its Mobility Future
Volkswagen is ramping up its strategy of smart city collaboration in a bid to extend its future reach into becoming a major provider of mobility solutions.
This week it is showcasing its answers for urban trends and challenges at the ITS World Congress in Singapore, where presentations aim is to offer cities tailored collaboration in mobility concepts and to sales growth through e-mobility, micro mobility and electric buses as well as with new mobility services. The move is part of its strategy Together 2025+ “Shaping Mobility – for generations to come”, where VW sees itself as “a partner for cities and a provider of solutions for futureproof, efficient, silent, safe and sustainable individual mobility”.
It claims to have instigated twelve city partnerships so far including sites such at Hanover, Hamburg and Wolfsburg in Germany as well as international locations such as Prague, Barcelona and Hefei in China. The strategy involves a promised 70 new electric car models to be launched over the next ten years.
In the public transport sector, its subsidiaries Scania and MAN will be offering municipalities electric buses such as MAN New Lion‘s City E and Scania’s Citywide LF electric bus from the end of 2020. The Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’s e-Crafter will be joined from early 2020 by the ABT e-Caddy and the ABT e-Transporter once the ABT Sportsline goes electric.
It’s passenger car brand Škoda has launched the pilot operation of BeRider, its electric scooter sharing service, in Prague. Here customers can put together their individual mobility mix of bus, tram, metro, rental bike, taxi and ride-hailing to suit current traffic conditions with the help of the brand’s app. The app also provides support for finding parking spaces and features a payment gateway that processes transactions for all services.
— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_
