Dr Michael Minis, is co-founder and CEO of Digital Mobility Solutions, developer of the MOQO mobility sharing platform. The MOQO app enables the sharing of all types of vehicles (cars, bicycles, scooters and much more) and offers operators of vehicles and users a clear and convenient tool for this.
At the beginning of May 2021, Porsche Bank from Austria became a new MOQO partner, looking to harness the platform to manage its car sharing service “sharetoo – mobility by Porsche Bank”. Dr Michael Minis explains more about the deal and how MOQO is helping the wider mobility market.
Can you explain what sharetoo is and what MOQO has to do with it?
Porsche Bank, located in Salzburg, Austria is part of the international Porsche Holding. Porsche Bank is not only active in Austria, but also in Eastern Europe and the Balkan countries as well as in South America. The company develops innovative mobility offers for its customers. One of these is car sharing with “sharetoo”. With sharetoo, Porsche Bank works together with a number of different partners. These include municipalities, as well as companies or operators of residential complexes. The business models are all very different. Porsche Bank was looking for a platform that could map and manage the different models which is how they came across MOQO.
How does MOQO work?
MOQO networks all the players involved on a comprehensive mobility platform which maps all the functionalities necessary for shared mobility. This includes, for example, the administration of customer data, the management of vehicles and their availability, tariffs, bookings, invoicing, information on maintenance, in the case of electric vehicles the landing status of the battery and much more. Sharing customers get access via an intuitive app. Sharing providers serve their target groups and design their business models via the portal. A wide variety of business models are possible, including station-based sharing, free-floating sharing or carpooling. MOQO is just as suitable for small providers with a few vehicles as for providers with several thousand vehicles.
Why is car sharing important for cities today?
There are several reasons. Space in cities is scarce and expensive. And when vehicles are parked for extended periods of time, they unproductively occupy valuable space. Besides, there is a general trend away from owning a car towards flexible, intermodal mobility offers. Car sharing is an indispensable element of this and is environmentally friendly, especially in promoting the use of electric vehicles.
However, it is important for me to point out that car sharing also offers many opportunities for rural areas. If there are only a few bus connections and no train, car sharing can sustainably improve the mobility offer there. Owning a car is not a priority in urban areas. People, particularly the younger generation, are increasingly looking to protect the planet and turning to mobility sharing rather than buying a car.
Who does MOQO work with, who are its customers?
Our customers and partners come from the automotive sector, for example, which reacts to market trends and changing customer needs with new, attractive, innovative mobility offers, often already proactively. We also work with providers from the public transport sector and regional municipal utilities that want to sell their customers mobility in addition to electricity, gas and water. In addition, there are municipalities that want to create better environmentally friendly mobility offers locally. Companies use MOQO to effectively manage their vehicle fleets. And in the real estate industry, too, there are more and more companies that also offer car sharing on their doorstep as an additional service for people occupying apartments.
