Integrated mobility – surely there’s a super-app for that?
For decades, Londoners have been able to travel around on a Travelcard, a single ticket providing unlimited access to bus, overground train, and underground “Tube” services. Simple and highly popular, this intermodal travel ticket concept was replicated elsewhere, including Paris (the Navigo pass), and Spain’s Greater Bilbao region (Creditrans).
But while “all-inclusive” intermodal travel tickets offer considerable freedom, they’re still considerably limited. Beyond the classic forms of public transport, there’s a growing number of other ways to get around town—but you can’t pay for a taxi, a shared bike, or an e-scooter with your crumpled transit ticket.
Imagine instead an app offering unlimited access to all forms of transport in that city, from public transportation such as bus, train, and tram services, to ride-hailing, e-bikes, and e-scooters.
Rather than paying separately for your transit tickets, your ride hailing services, and your e-bike or e-scooter rentals, you’re paying for “mobility as a service”. You’re paying for MaaS.
This so-called MaaS super-app provides all the route guidance, journey planning, digital payment, and e-ticketing that you need—and much more besides, if the operator is creative enough—and you can do it all on a pay-as-you-go basis, or on subscription. A Netflix for mobility, if you like.
According to a Reports and Data market forecast, the MaaS market is expected to reach more than US$372bn by 2026, up from US$42bn in 2018.
Much of that growth will come from ride-hailing, itself a massive growth sector. According to a Guidehouse Insights report published earlier this year, total global ride-hailing revenues in 2030 will reach US$3.4tr, with robotaxis projected to get about 13.1% of that revenue, equivalent to around US$450bn.
That’s why some of the world’s largest automakers are keen to join the party. Renault’s new Mobilize business unit has been tasked with generating more than 20% of group revenues from data, mobility, and energy-related services by 2030. Stellantis has elevated Free2Move to full brand status. And MaaS is one of the cornerstones of the Volkswagen Group’s ‘New Auto’ strategy. The automaker expects the MaaS market to be worth US$70bn by 2030 “in the five largest European markets alone.”
But it’s not easy to get into this party, something that other automakers have found out the hard way. For everyone concerned, the rewards could be plentiful, but the challenges are great. If they get it right, cities could offer several layers of potentially highly compatible modes of transportation. But unless they get it right, they’ll find themselves with high levels of incompatibility, and e-scooters strewn across footpaths will be more than just the perfect metaphor for a MaaS failure.
For MaaS to work, everyone needs to be in the same room—and therein lies the rub: Integrating the services of private mobility companies—frequently start-ups comfortable with setting up shop and then asking for forgiveness rather than permission—and long-in-the-tooth, set-in-their-ways public transport operators, is a massive (“maas-ive”? sorry…) task, requiring careful and creative coordination.
Integrated mobility—there’s an app for that. Isn’t there?
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Available to listen now: “In search of the MaaS transit super-app” featuring Sampo Hietanen (CEO, Maas Global / Whim), Pedro Somma (CEO, Quicko), and Tu Le (MD, Sino Auto Insights)
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