Mobility service Moia
The buses of the VW mobility service provider Moia to drive purely electrically through Hamburg.
Hamburg also lay workers arm-thick power cables on the site around the spacious former factory building, in the several golden yellow painted, battery-powered minibuses park. But in a month, exactly on 15 April, should from the depot at Hamburg airport from one of the largest experiments in the VolkswagenStart story: the ride-sharing service Moia.
The car manufacturer wants up to 500 minibuses Hamburg let go – a kind of shared taxi, requestable via App. For several hundred million euros builds the DaxCorporation the infrastructure for a new business model. Moia does not sell cars, but urban mobility as a supplement to public transport.
Ironically, the VW-Kernzielgruppe wants Moia boss Ole Harms achieve: “inveterate motorists,” as he says. His experiment is arguably the biggest electric ridesharing project in Europe, possibly even worldwide. So far, VW is testing the system on a much smaller scale in Hanover – but with diesel buses.
In Hamburg, for the first time, the electric minibuses built specifically in the Group plant in Osnabrück on the basis of the Crafter transporter are used. Six passengers have space, instead of a passenger seat there is room for luggage, on board are Wi-Fi, charging sockets and screens. For 300 kilometers, the buses are to come with a battery charge of 87 kilowatt hours, at fast charging stations, the batteries can be charged in half an hour to 80 percent.
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Six to seven euros to cost a ride on average, so much less than a taxi. At a projected average speed of 25 kilometers per hour, passengers have to accept longer driving times – and engage with passengers entering and exiting.
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Manager Harms has been preparing the project for two years. Initially, 100 buses will run from two depots, and within a few months, all 500 approved vehicles from further locations. The area in which rides can start and end up to a size of 300 square kilometers: from the Hamburg city area south of the Elbe to the far eastern suburb of Bergedorf.
The advertising campaign with which Moia advertises on billboards and on the radio around drivers reaches into the surrounding area. 400 drivers have already hired the VW subsidiary, 1600, it will be until 2020, to a basic hourly wage of twelve euros.
“We want to establish a large, ultimately profitable business model,” says Harms. For four years, the special permit in Hamburg is designed, in time all errors are ironed out so that Moia can roll out his model worldwide – if it proves to work. “What we do here is completely new,” Harms points out.
However, there are in Germany already a similar model: The railway participation Clever Shuttle Also offers ride sharing in electric cars with their own permanent drivers. Unlike VW, Clever Shuttle has already started in several major German cities – but only with a few vehicles and no large infrastructure. While VW plans the Big Bang in April, Clever Shuttle is growing organically.
Moia boss Ole Harms: This is Volkswagen’s man for the future
After the competitor first with hydrogen-powered sedans mainly from Toyota Since then, he has also been using cheaper minibuses with more seats – also in Hamburg. At the end of January, Clever Shuttle had 50 vehicles on the road in Hamburg.
The rides are there on average 60 percent cheaper than a taxi. Special actions in response to the Moia launch are not planned, said a clever shuttle spokesman on request. Even the taxi industry in the city is left after initial protests. “We’re not afraid,” said a spokesman for Hansa Taxi. So it is questionable whether Moia will ever find the desired number of drivers. The taxi center also offers split trips via app – but most of the orders would still come by phone.
VW uses Moia for an experimental clause in the passenger transport law. In preparation for the Mobility Congress ITS, which will take place in Hamburg in 2021, the Hanseatic city has concluded cooperation agreements with VW and other partners. Therefore, VW agrees closely with the authorities and the subway operator Hochbahn.
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For example, the wagons may only be held at previously defined locations – but these should be distributed closely and only a few hundred meters apart. In addition, VW has assured that Moia should never be cheaper than bus and train. In return, the offer should soon be bookable via the app of the transport association.
The city of Hamburg is currently pushing several mobility tests, including shuttles of the railway subsidiary Ioki and an inner-city test track for autonomous driving. The authorities are instructed to generously approve such projects of industrial partners for the ITS Congress.
Moia boss Harms demanded on Thursday to further modernize the passenger transport law at the federal level. Moia needs planning security – also to secure the jobs created. At the same time, new services should be limited. “We are big fans of regulation,” he said. Experiences with about Over in the US, it had been shown that public transport could otherwise be damaged. However, the previous changes to the law were “discouraged”. “The proposals that are now on the table are still rather half-baked,” he said.
Harms also stressed that VW started the project without public funding – not even for the charging infrastructure. However, he demanded to lower the VAT from the current 19 percent to seven percent, analogous to train and taxi for the new service.
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