The Volkswagen Group launched a new mobility services company called MOIA at a technology event in London recently, which will challenge ride-hailing company Uber, joining the likes of Tesla.
The newly-founded company will focus on individual mobility, which it describes as “convenient, at the touch of a button, at affordable prices and without having to own your own car.” The on-demand mobility service will be offered via a mobile app, with the company drawing upon the expertise of Gett, a ride-hailing provider, which the Volkswagen Group owns a stake in.
According to Automotive News Europe, MOIA will initially use Transporter minivans in its operations, but they will be replaced with autonomous electric vehicles (EVs) in the future.
The EVs will be based on the Group’s Modular Electric Platform (MEB), which first made its debut on the BUDD-e Concept from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and could resemble the techno minivan as well. MOIA CEO, Ole Harms mentioned that a concept of the vehicle will be shown by next year.
He added that the company hopes to begin trials of driverless vehicles by 2019, and have fully autonomous fleets running by 2021 offering the service. The report also stated that the brand’s biggest markets will be Europe, the United States and China.
“We are still moving around our cities like we did 20 or 30 years ago. We need to offer new forms of transportation and really improve the traffic situation,” said Harms. For a bit of trivia, the The name “MOIA” was derived from the Sanskrit word maya, meaning magic.
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