On April 15th, Comodule hosted its third webinar–a panel discussion focusing on shared mobility and owned mobility business models. We invited 3 mobility experts to elaborate on the matter on their side: Matthias Wilrich, VP of Vehicles and Supply Chain at Tier, Walter Melcher, a Product Manager of eMobility & Connected Bike at doubleSlash, and Lara de Koning, a Business Development Manager at Movelo. The moderator for this panel was the Co-Founder of Comodule, Teet Praks. Scroll down to read more about the main aspects of the panel topic and find a link to the webinar recording!

Micromobility market insights 

According to the latest statistics, in Korea, Seoul's public bike-share service usage rose by 24%, reaching up to 2.78 million in 2020 and as city governments are empowering cycling and emission-free transport, by developing bike lanes and raising taxes on high-emitting vehicles, the micromobility industry prospers.

Last year, 2020, e-bike sales grew 145% in the USA and 43% in Germany, at the same time, shared scooters and e-bike fleets remained as preferred options for public transit, said Teet Praks, leading in the panel with some numbers.

When looking at connected shared vehicles from the traditional bike companies’ perspective, Walter from doubleSlash found that the well-experienced cycling experts from bike industries could benefit from the niche and develop new business models of their own. The new D2C business models have a more clear product vision, there’s a lot of potential for the classical bike industry to be inspired and prosper, by implementing those ideas in its strategies, he thinks.

Is sharing becoming an entry-level for owning?

When discussing the future of shared mobility, the panelists went back to the point where it all started. Looking back at the first e-scooter fleets, Matthias from Tier described the upgrowth of moving from generic off-the-shelf shared scooters to tailor-made vehicles. The shared mobility industry is scaling up on different dimensions, such as better hardware, a better app, and a better UX, but is not trying to overshadow the owning mobility business. 

Which business model will be the champion in 10 years?

All panelists agreed that it’s difficult to choose either/or because the demand for both business models depends on the different use cases. The panelists brought examples on both sides, such as sharing services being more beneficial in cities, but leasing and owning a connected e-vehicle is more practical in the countryside or small villages.

Launching a poll with the same question among the attendees, the results were following:

How does IoT impact the connected mobility supply chain?

Diving into the connectivity part of the discussion, the experts talked about

• Connectivity as an enabler

• Connectivity as a differentiator

• Data usage for market transparency

• Tracking in sharing and owning mobility–useful or not?

Want to find out more about the discussion points? Click here to view the full recording of the webinar!