The future of mobility is taking shape on LinkedIn – here’s how auto brands can respond

Auto marketers know that their market is changing – and changing fast. New consumers demand new products and services to meet new challenges and expectations. A lot of auto businesses’ investment, and a lot of the media coverage around it, has focused on meeting these through new types of vehicles: electric, autonomous, smart and connected. However, LinkedIn data suggests that the biggest market opportunity won’t involve people buying any of these things. In fact, it won’t involve them buying a car at all.

The arrival of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Over the next five years or so, a growing number of consumers will switch from thinking about mobility as an object they own (i.e. a car), to thinking about it as a service they can access whenever they need it. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) involves them choosing between many different options when it comes to getting from A to B: ride-hailing services, vehicles that they lease or share with others, bikes that they borrow from city-wide schemes, or public transport. They’ll choose and use these options through seamlessly integrated smartphone apps that run on super-fast 5G networks, and pay for their use of public and private transport through cashless systems. When MaaS is established, consumers don’t feel the need to own a means of moving around; they are confident that a solution will come to where they are – and take them where they want to go.

A study by the market research and consultancy business, Reports and Data, found that that MaaS market was worth $42 billion in 2018 – but that it will grow to reach a staggering $326 billion in 2026. That’s 40% larger than the current global revenue for Toyota. Over the next seven years the revenue generated by people choosing not to own a car seems likely to far surpass the revenue that any one brand gets from people owning a car.