VEHO, a Finnish car dealer group, might have found the answer!
MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MAAS): THE NEW TRANSPORTATION PARADIGM
Over the past few years, Helsinki has been hitting the world’s newspapers headlines with its remarkable progresses in the field of sustainable mobility.
Building on the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a Finnish start-up, called MaaS Global, designed a new service making all private and public transportation options existing in the city available into a single mobile-app called WHIM.
Much like ordering movies on Netflix or music on Spotify, WHIM aims to fulfil customers’ mobility needs with its service either via a monthly subscription scheme or on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, with no longer the need to rely on car ownership.
Maas Global, and his CEO/Founder Sampo Hietanen, are considered the world ambassadors of MaaS, and for this they have been winning several start-up contests across the globe. Most recently they won the 1st edition of the European Startup Prize for mobility.
HOW CAN CAR DEALERS FIT IN THIS NEW PICTURE?
All this sounds very nice, but, how can car dealers (whose main activity is to sell cars) fit in this picture? This is where VEHO gets in! Veho is a Finnish automotive company operating also in Sweden and in the Baltic countries. Veho was established in 1939 for the distribution of Mercedes-Benz in Finland. Mercedes-Benz is the core of the company even today. Veho’s future goal is to offer more and more sustainable mobility solutions.
Kenneth Strömsholm / CEO, Veho: “In the future we want to measure our success, not only in the number of vehicles sold, but in the number of KMs travelled by VEHO’s customers. In the rapidly changing market and growing competition, customer loyalty is also a key factor. We are also committed to build everything we do, now and in the future, on sustainability”.
This is why, back in 2016 Veho became a shareholder of MaaS Global. The benefits stemming from this partnership with MaaS Global are twofold. Veho is not just an investor but Veho and MaaS Global have also been developing new kinds of mobility solutions involving cars as part of a big ecosystem made of different kinds of transportation modes.
HOW DOES IT WORK IN PRACTICE?
You are a family man, you need to replace your old family car and you plan to do it with a car loan that you can reimburse monthly.
You also have 2 driving-licenced children, who increasingly put pressure on you to get access to the only family car during the week-end, but they are still students, and therefore do not generate any income yet. In this case VEHO-GO really has the answer for you. By adding some euros more to your monthly rate, you get a tailor-made mobility package including a few days a month of car-rental service + full access to the public transport network (buses, underground, bike-sharing), that both your children can use, without having to buy a second car.
ARE NEW MOBILITY CONCEPTS SUITABLE BUSINESS MODELS FOR CAR DEALERS?
New mobility concepts are coming up everywhere while experts keep announcing the end of car ownership. Car dealers will have to deal with these developments as their traditional business model is going to be affected.
Although this is of course not a one size fits all approach for all the car dealers in all EU countries,VEHO is surely an impressive example how a traditional dealer can adapt to the changes ahead of us.
CECRA, established in 1983, is the European federation bringing together national professional associations, which represent the interests of motor trade and repair business and European Dealers councils. CECRA represents on a European scale 336,720 motor trade and repair enterprises. Together they employ 2,9 million people. CECRA provides representation to its members within the European Institutions with the aim of following-up as well as influencing the decision-making process.
For more information: Bernard Lycke Director General: bernard.lycke@cecra.eu
http://www.cecra.eu