Mobility services are the big growth area for OEMs, who are called upon to defend themselves against innovators such as Tesla, E.Go, Streetscooter or Microlino with mobility offers. This is also the case for Daimler subsidiary Financial Services. The latter is now very successful with these new mobility services and, above all, on a global scale.

As of May 2018, the respective subsidiaries such as car2go, moovel and mytaxi had a total of 22.9 million customers. This corresponds to an increase of 88% within a year. Like its German competitors BMW, VW, Audi and Porsche, the Stuttgart-based company is investing heavily in various mobility business areas.

Mytaxi convinces with 116% growth

At 116%, mytaxi recorded the strongest growth compared to the previous year. Currently 14.9 million customers use the Taxi App. The former startup was acquired in Berlin a few years ago. The moovel mobility platform grew by 74% (4.8 million customers) compared to the same period last year. As the German market leader in free-floating car sharing, car2go had around 3.2 million customers worldwide at the end of May 2018. This is an increase of 25% compared to the same period last year. Customers use Daimler Mobility Services in over 100 cities in Europe, China, North and South America.

Shareholder of FlixBus and taxify

There have been new developments since May due to an investment by Daimler Financial Services in Estonia. There, they participated in the transport service provider taxify through a financing round. The Estonian company is already active in 20 countries and over 25 cities. In addition to the Via shuttle service, the Blacklane limousine service or the American-Canadian peer-to-peer car sharing platform Turo, it complements the mobility offering.

Daimler Financial Services has also been a shareholder in Flixmobility, the mobility provider of the FlixBus and FlixTrain brands, since 2013. The European market leader for long-distance bus travel is currently expanding its range in the USA under the FlixBus brand. The long-distance bus market there is considered’old-fashioned’. In the same way that the Munich startup has approached the European market, it is to be expected that things in the USA will pick up rapidly. In any case, the American top dog Greyhound already reacts with a cold.

E-mobility: new E-Smarts at car2go

With 3.2 million customers, car2go is the market leader and pioneer of free-floating car sharing. In the metropolises Madrid, Amsterdam and Stuttgart car2go offers pure electric fleets. So now also in Stuttgart. Since June, the smart EQ Fortwo has been the first vehicle in the fleet to be equipped with an electric drive system. The new E-smarts can be fully charged within 45 minutes. This is intended above all to shorten the service life at charging stations and significantly increase availability. Currently, about 10% of the 14,000 car2go vehicles worldwide are electrically powered. On average, an electric vehicle is rented every nine seconds.

Daimler is consistently pushing ahead with the expansion of its electric fleet. Ultimately, this will also allow other cities to be added to the network. For example, car2go recently announced the opening of the seventh North American location, Chicago. From 25 July 2018, 400 car2go vehicles will be available for spontaneous rental. Each car sharing vehicle from car2go replaces several private cars in the flow of urban traffic and thus improves the quality of life.

moovel Group: Partner of cities and transport companies

The positioning of moovel is also interesting in this context. Recently it was announced that the new service of the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG “SSB Flex” is based on the moovel on-demand technology for ride sharing.

Moovel has thus succeeded in positioning itself as a mobility service provider for local transport providers. They use the software to operate their own modular mobility services.

The algorithm of the moovel on-demand platform bundles the user’s travel requests (“pooling”) and enables the sharing of trips (“ride sharing”). With the app you can order and pay for the cars and minibuses. After booking, it is shown where and when the vehicle collects the customer. SSB Flex is the first nationwide service for App-based groupage services to be operated with a line permit in accordance with the German Passenger Transportation Act.

With the multimodal mobility platform, moovel enables cities and transport companies to integrate different mobility providers. Using the mobility app as an interface between cities and transport companies and end customers, public transport tickets can be booked and paid for, as well as other services such as car sharing or taxi rides. This in turn helps cities and transport companies to make mobility more efficient and local transport more attractive.

For the Daimler strategists, the new Mobility Services are an elementary component of a networked and integrated offering of the future. The winners in Future Mobility will be those who have mastered this integrated and modular offer, and Daimler seems to be on the right track in this respect.

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