New mobility is one of the four megatrends facing the automotive industry throughout this century, in addition to electrification, autonomous driving and digitization. It’s a very different paradigm shift from making to sell.
Things are changing a lot in the automotive sector in a very short time. For several generations the automobile meant freedom, autonomy and independenceWhether it was a motorcycle or a car, and this was one of the pillars of the growth of the so-called “middle class” after the two great world wars.
However, nowadays there is no longer a close relationship between the car and those concepts, at least not in the same way. Traditionally, those who have wanted a car have had to buy it, new or used, or occasionally resort to rental companies or loans from family or friends. It can end up being the other way around.
The automobile being increasingly subject to taxes and fees of all kinds, and the new generations having a scale of different vital priorities (in addition to a diminishing purchasing power), freedom, autonomy and independence are no longer necessarily achieved by owning a car. You just have to look at the figures for driver’s license emissions and vehicle sales among the youngest. Far from it is a phenomenon exclusive to Spain.
Share Now, Free2Move, WiBLE and Zity rental vehicles
The new possibilities that technology offers us allow that it does not take a person to give us the keys of a vehicle to be able to use it. Nor is it necessary to pay in cash, or make reservations with a telephone conversation, or visit someone in person to do paperwork. All you need is a mobile phone and a bank card.
Decades ago it did not make much sense to have a fleet of vehicles parked in cities so that any subscriber could use them or be charged exclusively for their use. The same could have worked in a society where ethics had maximum penetration, even relying on users to leave exact coins in open vehicles. I know, sounds utopian.
If more people use the same vehicles, it will take much less, in the long term it is a headache for manufacturers
None of that is a problem today. There is a growing tendency to sue mobility, not automobiles, so you have to provide a service rather than an industrially manufactured good. That is why manufacturers have come to the conclusion that they cannot make money exclusively by manufacturing and selling cars, motorcycles … However, they are going to take advantage of what is left by selling the most expensive models possible and sell “services” separately.
The Mobilize Limo is a vehicle born basically for drivers and passengers, not for sale to individuals
We have a good example in the manufacturers smart, PSA (now STELLANTIS), Renault and Kia. They founded or bought rental services by the minute of electric cars or plug-in hybrids, for which there is no registration fee or maintenance fee, only use for minutes or days. Thus Profitability was obtained from cars that, at that time, did not have an easy exit to the market owned. Like airplanes, they give money on the move, not stopped.
Many companies have also arrived that rent electric scooters, scooters and bicycles. The same provider can offer multimodal solutions with private vehicles to drive them, but also with the public service, taxis and VTC, in which they take us. Everything is available within a few taps of a mobile phone application, leaving a personal information, driver’s license and bank card numbers.
We have even come to see that some manufacturers have their own brand of mobility, with specific vehicles and all, see Mobilize at Renault or Free2Move at STELLANTIS. These brands are gradually achieving a certain level of independence from the parent company. We have also seen acquisitions of mobility companies by manufacturers for these purposes. It is one more business line.
This can evolve in different ways, both for those who want to drive the vehicle with their own hands, and for those who simply want a ride. It is the middle ground between using a means of personal locomotion (walking, scooter, bicycle) or public transport, and owning your own motor vehicle.
This business is growing, and analysts are running dizzying numbers about how much they can grow. When the point comes where autonomous vehicles can get people from one place to another, there will be a revolution in urban and interurban transportation. Just look at Citroën’s proposal for a universal transport platform with pods or capsules of different purpose.
There may come a day when few people already buy cars and prefer to pay exclusively for use and enjoyment. Perhaps by then governments have realized that they squeezed the goose that laid the golden eggs so much that it stopped laying eggs, and public finances will have to envision new ways to finance themselves. Who knows…