Mobility in Germany

Mobility in Germany is now embracing market changes that megatrends like new technologies and regulatory requirements are imposing on the economic landscape. Society’s impending transition to a sharing economy, urbanization, and digitalization are key factors that are triggering a dramatic transformation in customer and producer markets. This book aims to capture, evaluate, and provide detailed and holistic representations of the transformation of established business methods that embrace these megatrends, as well as highlight the emergence of new business models of mobility that actively cater to changing customer requirements. This book, therefore, captures examples from practice such as the evolution of a vibrant start-up network in mobility that pose threats to well-known traditional business models. Using business analysis methods such as the PEST analysis, a business model canvas, and a detailed survey on customer perspectives in Germany, this book aims to equip mobility practitioners, policymakers, management professionals, start-up founders, investors, and students with a critical and thorough analysis of the German mobility industry to enable effective and efficient decision-making that will contribute to consumer-friendly, futuristic, and sustainable mobility solutions.

In this chapter, you will find an elaboration of the macro-environment that composes the business landscape of the German mobility market. It equips you with detailed insights into existing market barriers and circumstances that may hamper or accelerate the success of the mobility providers. The analysis is conducted using the PEST analysis, which is a spin-off of the PESTLE-analysis, a popular management tool introduced by Aguilar (Scanning the business environment, Macmillan, New York, NY, 1967) that assesses the political, economic, social, and technological aspects of a market environment. A traditional PESTLE analysis would additionally cover legal and environmental factors. These factors are already covered by PEST in the case of the German mobility industry.

This chapter provides you the know-how on the most critical megatrends that triggered and are accelerating the change in the German mobility sector. “Megatrends are macroeconomic and geostrategic forces that are shaping the world. They are factual and often backed by verifiable data. By definition, they are big and include some of society’s biggest challenges—and opportunities” (PwC, Five megatrends and their implications for global defense & security. Retrieved July 26, 2020, from https://​www.​pwc.​com/​gx/​en/​government-public-services/​assets/​five-megatrends-implications.​pdf, 2016). Accordingly, the most important megatrends influencing the global mobility sector are digitalization, urbanization, sustainability that are reforming the structure, thought process, decision-making, and the overall behavior and response mechanisms of society.

To understand the environment leading to the evolution of new business models in mobility in Germany, it is essential to analyze the already established businesses in this century-old industry. The mobility market in Germany had a total revenue of around 165 billion Euros in 2019 with around 90% of the population using transport options daily, making it a basic need as important as food or housing (Statista, Umsatz der Automobilindustrie in Deutschland in den Jahren 2005 bis 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2020, from https://​de.​statista.​com/​statistik/​daten/​studie/​160479/​umfrage/​umsatz-der-deutschen-automobilindustr​ie/​, 2020f). Established business models cover individual transportation, such as car manufacturers, local public transportation, taxis, and long-range transportation, mainly operated by Deutsche Bahn (DB).

In the course of this book, the core factors of the German mobility market both from the supply and the demand side were identified using the PEST analysis introduced by Aguilar. Following this, a description of megatrends and their sweeping influence on multiple stakeholders in mobility that lead to tectonic shifts in business model designing in the mobility industry were elucidated in detail. A case-study approach was used to expand on all individual mobility models that have evolved in the market as well as the changes in the overall industry environment were explained. The chapter below is dedicated to analyzing the perspective of German customers on the topic of mobility and the changes foreseen in this sector.

The results of the customer survey are presented in this chapter. Objectives discussed in the previous chapter notably, (1) measuring the intensity of customers’ mobility usage, (2) customers’ decision-making behavior and aspects that translate into success for service providers, and (3) the influence of megatrends on customer perception form the core of the information presented below. Results obtained from the survey will be conjoined with the PEST and BMC analyses to arrive at recommendations for service providers in the established and new business mobility sectors.

Mobility services in Germany comprise the segments: trains, buses, cars (sharing and rental), bikes, taxi services, and flights. According to the Statista Mobility Market Outlook, 2020 worldwide revenues in mobility services are expected to increase from 880 billion Euros in 2019 to 1141 billion Euros by 2025; in Germany mobility services, revenues are forecasted to increase to 19,096 million Euros in 2021. Users or customers of mobility in the age group 25–34 years old account for the highest usage of more than 26% in the total population. Approximately 55% of mobility users in Germany are male. By the end of the year 2025, 74% of mobility services sales are to be generated via online sales.