More mobility for the Hanseatic city: Moia, the ride-sharing service of VW, goes into the test mode. From April, passengers should regularly travel in the Electric minibuses above her Smartphone book.
January 9, 2019, 5:17 pm,
Werner Pluta
Electric miniature bus Moia in the courtyard of Hamburg City Hall: criticism of taxi drivers
(Photo: Moia)
A new offer for the local public transport (LPT) in Hamburg: The Ridesharing service Moia has started its test operation on January 9th. The regular launch is scheduled for April. Criticism comes from the taxi drivers.
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Moia is a service in which passengers form carpools – a middle ground between bus and taxi: They book a ride via app and receive a message as to when the vehicle arrives. The system knows the route of the vehicle. It detects when on the route other passengers want to board, who want in a similar direction.
The billing per kilometer and the more passengers ride, the cheaper the ride for the individual. A ride Moia should always cost more than a ride on the bus or train. This reduces the attractiveness: The Hamburg public transport is considered one of the most expensive in Germany.
The initiator of Moia is the car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW), which developed its own vehicle for the vehicle service: the same electric minibus, in which a driver and six passengers have space. The Moia is intended for city traffic and therefore only goes 90 km / h fast. The range according to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) is more than 300 kilometers. The battery can be charged to 80 percent of its capacity in half an hour.
During the test phase, the VW subsidiary wants to perform according to their own statements “technical tests” and train several hundred drivers. The regular operation should start at the beginning of April with initially 100 vehicles. The city has approved 500 vehicles to be in service by early next year. Moia would like to expand the fleet to 1,000 vehicles.
In Hanover Moia drives with conventional cars
Moia started last year in Hannover and is already driving there in regular operation, but still with combustion vehicles. In Hamburg, a partner of Moia is the transport company Hochbahn, which integrates the electric vehicles in its mobility platform Switchh, in which several car-sharing providers and the Bicycle rental city bike involved. For Switchh, there are exclusive parking spaces for car sharing vehicles, which are often located near subway or suburban train stops.
Moia is not the first ridesharing service in Hamburg: since 2017, it’s already here, like some other cities the company Clevershuttle active. In Hamburg, the Clevershuttle drivers are exclusive with the fuel cell vehicle Toyota Mirai on road. Clevershuttle now also uses other electric cars in Hamburg.
Criticism came initially from the taxi drivers. However, the protests quietened when the Department of Transportation approved only 500 vehicles instead of Moia’s 1,000.
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