Mobility as a Service in the Middle East, Hypermotion Dubai

Mobility as a Service in the Middle East – steering the course for a net zero carbon future

By: Hypermotion Dubai

Investors, technology and mobility experts gave a fascinating insight into the growing popularity of on-demand mobility and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the Middle East during a recent webinar hosted by Hypermotion Dubai.

Edward Forrester, Future Lead & Deputy Cities Lead at Mott MacDonald was joined by Michael Granoff, Managing Director of Maniv Mobility, an investor in mobility technology start-ups; Thomas Wolf, COO of Hacon, a software supplier for transport and logistics services; and Jaideep Dhanoa, Co-founder and CEO of Fenix, an e-scooter for hire platform.

Their task was to collectively explore how on-demand mobility and MaaS can contribute to a net zero carbon society, with a detailed view of the unique regional challenges and opportunities along the way.

MaaS enables users to plan, book, and pay on-demand for multiple mobility options via a digital platform, leading to an eventual shift away from personally owned modes of transportation, such as vehicles.

Its success depends not only on the app aggregator of mobility options, but also on ensuring the appropriate

digital and physical infrastructure is in place so users can get around safely ondemand, whether on a scooter, in a cab, a water taxi, the metro, or even a gondola.

Key to that, said Granoff – who gets around via an e-scooter on the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, where Maniv Mobility is based – is private and public sector cooperation.

“I think the most interesting trend to watch this year and in the coming few years is how the public and policy makers interact around the change of road usage, thereby creating more infrastructure for lighter-weight vehicles, electric mobility, and individual personal mobility,” said Granoff. “In Tel Aviv, there’s a great plan for infrastructure in terms of dedicated lanes for scooters. The plan over the next few years is very robust, because that’s the public will.” Wolf said the wealth of data that MaaS platforms generate is equally important and provides operators critical user information to optimise mobility routes and services.

“A MaaS platform doesn’t only need data to operate. It also produces a wealth of data,” he added. “If you operate a MaaS platform, you understand a lot about citizens of your region.

“You know a lot about their mobility behaviour and mobility requirements, and a city needs to know about this to serve their citizens. If they don’t understand their mobility behaviour, they cannot provide an adequate infrastructure.”

SUSTAINABLE AND SEAMLESS TRAVEL

Wolf said Hacon, a fully owned subsidiary of German conglomerate Siemens, said the company’s vision is in line with their own interpretation of MaaS – sustainable and seamless travel for a better quality of life.

Hacon’s MaaS apps have received 200 million downloads in 25 countries, computing 100 million trips daily across more than five million stops, with yearly ticket revenue generating more than 18 billion euros.

“These huge numbers show very well that we now play a vital role in many people’s everyday lives around mobility, and that our digital solutions have really become the backbone of mobility in many countries and regions,” said Wolf.

THE MICRO MOBILITY MIX

Fenix, a leading micro-mobility operator, entered the Middle East in November

MaaS apps have received 200 million downloads in 25 countries, computing 100 million trips daily across more than five million stops, with yearly ticket revenue generating more than 18 billion euros

2020, with operations in Abu Dhabi on the back of a cash injection by Maniv Mobility – the first Israeli mobility startup VC investment of its kind in the UAE, following the Abraham Accords in August 2020 that normalised relations between the UAE and Israel.

The US-headquartered company offers a shared e-scooter service along with the region’s first private subscription scooter service called my-Fenix, where users pay weekly or monthly fees for their private scooter.

Jaideep said micro-mobility is an essential part of the multi-modal transport mix in cities such as Dubai, where trips are often single-user, or to get to other public transport forms, such as the metro. “The 20th century mobility model was built around a car which would service all people’s mobility needs,” said Jaideep.

“This provides a lot of freedom, but also a lot of wastage and inefficiency because it’s overqualified for a lot of its use. Most of our trips in cities are single passenger and micro-mobility is optimised for servicing that need.”

Jaideep argued scooters have a much smaller vehicle footprint: 20 kgs versus 2,000 kgs for cars, they’re electric, they offer a much lower consumer cost base, and are faster since users can avoid traffic congestion when going point to point in cities for short distant trips.

“If you repurpose some space from cars, for alternatives like a micro mobility lane, we’ll have six times more passengers than a car lane,” added Jaideep. “It’s a 500% increase, which is unfathomable. It’s also reducing the air pollution and carbon emissions.

“It would also facilitate access to public transport. One of the challenges in Dubai is getting to its metro stations, and micro-mobility is a core facilitator of this multimodal future we’re aspiring towards.” ‘The rise of on-demand mobility and MaaS’ webinar was hosted by Messe Frankfurt Middle East, the organiser of Hypermotion Dubai, which will make its debut from 2-4 November 2021 at the Dubai Exhibition Centre (DEC).