Volkswagen Establishing New Brand for Ride Sharing

Volkswagen is another automaker getting into the ride sharing business.

Volkswagen AG announced at the 2016 Paris Motor Show that it has established an as yet unnamed subsidiary to handle car sharing and logistics. The so-called 13th brand will be based in Berlin, Germany, and according to CEO Matthias Muller will help bring VW into the future.

“Our new group brand is to rank among the leading mobility services providers and become the market leader in Europe by 2025,” said Muller at a Volkswagen press conference Wednesday, ahead of the Paris Motor Show.

According to the CEO of the unnamed 13th brand, Ole Harms, the new brand will focus on OnDemand mobility, with the help of Moscow’s number one ride hailing app, Gett, into which VW recently invested $300 million.

Volkswagen, through this new brand will have direct contact with the customer. Harms says the brand will be a way of crowd sourcing transit.

2016 Paris Motor Show Coverage

It was suggested that Volkswagen’s recent partnership with the city of Hamburg would make it the perfect place to introduce the service.

No timeline has yet been given, but the 13th brand’s introduction into the market will precede wide adoption of all electric cars (Volkswagen has claimed that the first MEB car will be released in 2019).

Thanks to its partnership with Gett, New York seems a likely place for the new brand to make a go of it in America, if and when it does, thanks to Gett’s market share there.

The new brand won’t only help people move, but it will also help things move, as another brand board member, Johann Jungwirth says that the 13th brand will work along with MAN, Scania, and even the recently acquired Navistar.

There’s more information to come, including a name, when the brand officially launches in November.

A version of this article originally appeared on VWVortex.com

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