- EvoBus GmbH has become a strategic investor with a minority stake in the Berlin-based CleverShuttle mobility service
- Cooperation in the development of innovative solutions for “on-demand services” for transport associations and companies
- Software optimally adjusts the offer from transport associations and companies to customer requirements
- Heinz Friedrich, Daimler Buses: “With innovative technology companies from the start-up scene, we can quickly provide our customers with new offers in order to adjust their future business even better to their individual requirements.”
- Bruno Ginnuth, CleverShuttle: “We want to use our knowledge as a B2B solution and have now gained the best partner we could have wished for in the form of Daimler Buses.”
Stuttgart/Berlin – Daimler Buses is joining the Berlin-based CleverShuttle mobility service as a strategic investor. As part of a minority stake, EvoBus GmbH and CleverShuttle plan a strategic cooperation for “on-demand mobility”, like mobility offers which are flexibly adapted to suit customer demands.
Using the CleverShuttle software platform, traffic associations and companies offer innovative solutions in order to be able to optimally adapt their mobility offers to customer requirements at any time. The new on-demand software is based on the tried-and-tested technology from CleverShuttle and can be integrated into existing regular service routes. This collaboration leads to transport offerings which are more suited to requirements and which, at the same time, is more economical.
CleverShuttle holds a pioneering role in Germany in the field of “on-demand mobility”: since the beginning of 2016, the company has been running a car-sharing service based on the use of electrically-powered passenger cars and was thus already able to gather experience in the efficient pooling and route optimization.
Daimler Buses aspires to play an active part in shaping the future of mobility and not merely by means of new vehicles, but also by new service offerings. To this end, since 2016, Daimler Buses has had a specialist Mobility Solutions department in place as a sort of “think tank” for all future-relevant topics. The further development of existing business models is every bit as much a part of the bus business as the development of completely new concepts. A decisive aspect for the success of Mobility Solutions is working on the topics in collaboration with partners and customers – this is the only way of finding suitable solutions which offer the utmost level of usefulness to customers.
Heinz Friedrich, Head of Mobility Solutions Daimler Buses: “In the development of new solutions concerning the future of mobility, we’re not only working with our long-standing customers from the public transport networks, but also with new, innovative technology companies from the start-up scene. This allows us to quickly provide our customers with new offers in order to adjust their future business even better to their individual requirements. Together with CleverShuttle, we are going to test the new services already this year as a part of an initial pilot phase in a German city.”
“We’re really driving things forward as we are already starting to see how well-received our ride-sharing concept in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich is,” says Bruno Ginnuth, Co-founder and Managing Director of CleverShuttle. “With it, we’re closing the gap between buses and taxis. Both have their own purpose, but in between them, there was hardly anything available in Germany. Now we want to use our knowledge as a B2B solution and have gained the best partner we could have wished for in the form of Daimler Buses.”
About CleverShuttle
CleverShuttle runs an on-demand ridesharing service in Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig. The company backs sustainable electromobility and thus offers the world’s first emission-free on-demand driving service in urban conurbations. An intelligent optimization algorithm bundles CleverShuttle passengers with similar routes into a single vehicle and drives them efficiently and inexpensively from door to door. CleverShuttle is the first and presently only German company to have obtained approval from the authorities for shared driving tasks. Since the beginning of 2016, the company has transported more than 170,000 passengers and their on-demand software has been tested with more than 500,000 driven kilometers and thus appropriately optimized.
As a result of the growing demand of passengers searching for flexible and individual mobility offers, CleverShuttle and its service portfolio are on a growth course. Besides the expansion of the operative business to at least a further four German towns in 2017, CleverShuttle will join forces with EvoBus GmbH to develop their B2B business.
Daimler AG as a mobility service provider
Daimler AG’s development into a mobility service provider is also making progress in other areas of the Group. Alongside Daimler Buses, moovel also operates as an integrative mobility service provider for transport companies, with the moovel apps offering customer and user-oriented solutions.
Jörg Lamparter, Head of Mobility Services Daimler Financial Services and CEO of moovel Group: “moovel has allowed us to create an operating system for urban mobility which offers access to various mobility services. In this context, we see ourselves as a partner for towns and transport companies, and work together with these in order to simplify and to shape urban mobility more flexible.”
In this regard, Daimler AG is sending a strong signal for the future of mobility. The customer-oriented approach actively supports transport companies and towns on their road to digitalisation.