Volkswagen Group has revealed plans for its new mobility services company, dubbed MOIA.  MOIA will develop and market its own mobility services either independently or in partnership with cities and existing transport systems.

Ole Harms, CEO of MOIA and Matthias Müller, CEO of the Volkswagen Group.

The Volkswagen Group intends to generate a substantial share of its sales revenue from this new business by 2025.

“In parallel, the Group brands will continue to move forward with their own services,” explained Ole Harms, CEO of MOIA. “Our sights are set on becoming one of the global top players for mobility services in the medium term. To achieve that we will be seeking to attract the best minds and technology start-ups.”

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

A further important location in Germany for MOIA will be the city of Hamburg. Back in the autumn, 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.

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.

The Volkswagen Group already has a stake in Gett, one of the world’s leading ride hailing providers. The app allows users to instantly book on-demand transportation, delivery and logistics in more than 100 cities worldwide.

“Together with Gett we are 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. Further markets will follow soon,” Harms said.

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 optimising 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.