Daily Times

Individual car ownership no longer appears to be an effective solution to society’s mobility needs, and carmakers are exploring various alternatives for current and future customers. Volvo, for example, has launched a new mobility brand called M, which, from 2019, will offer on-demand access to cars and services via a mobile application.

M is billed as a car-sharing solution to help more people move around freely, in a responsible and sustainable manner. The accompanying application will be developed with proprietary learning technology to meet specific user needs more effectively, in the aim of improving efficiency and saving time.

With this new app, Volvo is drawing on the experience, knowledge and data of Sunfleet, Sweden’s leading car-sharing company, with a fleet of 1,700 cars and 500,000 annual transactions. Indeed, it will be fully integrated into M in 2019, making M’s services available to all members of the Sunfleet network once it launches. Volvo hopes to build a customer base of more than five million individuals worldwide for M by 2025.

A beta version of the service is scheduled to be tested in Stockholm, Sweden in fall 2018 to ensure the platform functions correctly before its official launch, first in Sweden, then in the USA, in spring 2019.

Published in Daily Times, July 6^th 2018.