Electric Cars and Ride-Sharing: A Closer Look at MOIA's Value Proposition

As I visited Hamburg in April 2019, I noticed that there was something different about my hometown. Something about it seemed more efficient than usual. Noticing the change, my eyes caught on to a fleet of brown vans zipping through the streets of Hamburg. The cars had the letters M O I A written in front of them. A quick Google search led to my discovery of MOIA on the Volkswagen website. It turns out that MOIA is a sister company of Volkswagen. Their value proposition? To make transportation fast, efficient and environmentally-friendly. You see, a lot of people in metropolitan areas own cars but only seem to drive their cars for an hour a day. Essentially, cars in big cities are just sitting in their driveways for most of the time. To incentivise people to use shared transport, MOIA decided to create a ride-sharing service where a fleet of electric vehicles can be hailed via an app. The vehicles act like a well-run shuttle bus, picking up passengers along the way. Design the cars well enough and it can even feel like a luxurious experience. Thus, the idea of MOIA came to fruition. According to customer reviews, the vans are spacious, clean and nicely designed. The service has been touted to be exceptional. Drivers are friendly and truly love driving the vans, made from the same technology and parts as other Volkswagen vehicles. Electric cars can reduce a huge amount of emissions. Charging a car with electricity is also known to be cheaper than fueling a car with gasoline. Overall, this is a huge step forward in designing sustainable cities and improving the quality of life for city folk. And Hamburg is a good place to be executing these initiatives. I'm looking forward to seeing this in other cities in Europe. Who knows - maybe even in London!