Many mobility business models are focused on variations on mobility services, with differences in vehicle, driving distance, and/or level of ownership. For instance, mobility services might employ cars, bikes or scooters which could be shared or rented. While some services are station-bound, requiring you to travel to a specific place, others will pick you up at any location. Furthermore, some services might be focussed on longer distance travel, while others are exclusively meant to serve for low-range travel. As we are focussing on urban areas in this section, in the following we will only consider small to medium distances. The average travel distance in German urban areas ranges from 11km to 13km per ride, resulting in a total travel distance of 42km to 47km per person and day [1]. In the following i will define short-distance travel as 5km and lower, and medium distance as 5km to 30km.
In Germany, mobility services are still relatively rare, capturing roughly 4 billion dollars in market value in 2019. In comparison, the mobility market in the United States captures over 80 billion dollars, making it roughly 20 times larger [2].
There are different ways one can classify mobility services. One way of differentiating them is by level of ownership, for instance. Level of ownership can range from complete ownership (e.g. owning a car) to no ownership (e.g. taking a bus), with “vehicle on demand” and “mobility on demand” models between the two extremes. Mobility on demand refers to services in which the customer is offered some sort of mobility in exchange for money. On the other hand, vehicle on demand refers to services in which the customer is driven as part of a service. These include several types of sharing models, like car sharing, electric scooters or bike sharing. There are also new ownership models that blur the line between conventional ownership and mere rights of use.
[1] Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur. (2019). Mobilität in Deutschland - MiD. 28. https://www.mobilitaet-in-deutschland.de/pdf/MiD2017_Ergebnisbericht.pdf
[2] Schmidt, A., Reers, J., Irwin, B., & Loes, H. (2020). Unlock the value of mobility services: Turning business models into profits. Accenture. 6. https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-135/Accenture-Unlock-Value-of-Mobility-Services.pdf
