M: Volvo also joins the new mobility services

The new mobility is set to become a multibillion-dollar business that no manufacturer wants to miss. In urban and metropolitan areas, users are beginning to abandon car ownership in favour of pay-per-use mobility. More and more brands already have, or at least are preparing, this shift in business model, developing new brands and services that can offer pay-as-you-go mobility to suit consumers. One of the latest to develop this type of service is Volvo Cars, with M, a new brand that will bring together its entire mobility services offering.

Volvo Cars is set to be much more than a car company. We are aware that urban users are rethinking traditional vehicle ownership. “M” is part of our response. We are evolving to become a direct-to-consumer service provider, and our new mission is to offer ‘freedom of movement’

With these words, Hakan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars, presented “M”, the new mobility brand developed by Volvo Cars to expand its operations in this field globally. The Swedish brand, part of the Chinese automotive group Geely, aims to provide new, reliable mobility services through an intuitive mobile app. Volvo Cars wants to offer an ideal alternative to vehicle ownership for city and metropolitan area residents, and thereby get more people moving freely and sustainably.

“Mobility is undergoing a fundamental transformation, and Volvo Cars is leading that change,” says Samuelsson. “The launch of M creates new revenue streams for Volvo Cars and will be a key pillar of our goal to establish more than five million direct customer relationships by the middle of the next decade,” the Swedish brand’s chief said.

To achieve this goal, M is developing its own learning technology that will ask users about their specific needs rather than simply telling them where they can pick up vehicles. Unlike current services, which essentially offer alternatives to taxis or public transport, Volvo’s approach with M “focuses on understanding how people use the vehicles they own. We want to offer a real alternative to that experience. One that lets us live life our way, get work done and make the most of valuable time. We see an opportunity to offer a Premium experience,” says Bodil Eriksson, Managing Director of Volvo Cars Mobility.

M’s services will begin to be available in spring 2019. Initially, Sweden and the United States will be the first two markets where they will be launched. Volvo Cars has decided to integrate Sunfleet, its shared mobility company, into M. Sunfleet is Sweden’s leading shared vehicle company which, with 1,700 operational vehicles, completes more than 500,000 transactions a year.