If you think the future for motoring involves a car sitting outside your house, it may be time to think again. Volvo’s CEO Håkan Samuelsson reckons that short-term rental will become the most popular form of car usage in the near future, followed by peer-to-peer car sharing. Speaking in Shanghai at the launch of the Volvo S90 L, Samuelsson said that Volvo’s future role would be to provide autonomous cars as part of the mobility solution currently offered by ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Volvo has already partnered with Uber to grow this market area. “If you need mobility for a longer time, maybe a week, we think there will be a market for car sharing, which we are already exploring,” said Samuelsson. “While we develop into peer-to-peer car sharing, we must develop car connectivity, because these two are heavily linked.” Customers would use a smartphone app (for example) to request a car over a relatively short term. If you needed a car for longer – effectively, your ‘own’ car – Samuelsson believes a subscription-based model will come into play. “People will pay a monthly fee, like they do for a phone contract.” That’s similar to the personal contract purchases (PCPs) which are already the UK’s most popular way to buy a car. Traditional outright car purchasing of a car would become the fourth and smallest element in the new car market. “Some people will always want to own their own vehicles.”
Volkswagen will launch an on-demand shuttle service called MOIA next year using a new design of electric bus. Users will be able to hail shuttles using an app and get picked up from designated points at short notice. If there is only one passenger asking for a particular journey, the trip may be outsourced to partners, such as Gett. The service will launch in Berlin and Hamburg before starting in two major European cities by the end of next year. BMW plans to tap into the ride-hailing market with a fleet of 40 autonomous cars to begin testing in Munich next year. The German carmaker is set to spend billions on the "pay-per-use" transport market, albeit using trained test drivers in their autonomous vehicles. Tony Douglas, BMW’s head of strategy for mobility and services, has dubbed the sector a "license to print money", and said that in four days, 14,000 people signed up for the service, in a market served by four other players. Short-term renting and peer-to-peer car sharing will replace traditional car ownership, according to Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson. The Swedish carmaker will focus on providing autonomous cars in the same way as Uber or Lyft. For customers who wanted to have a car for a longer period of time, Samuelsson suggested the use of a monthly subscription model.