Volkswagen and Hamburg extend strategic mobility partnership

MAN is to deliver 20 electric buses to HVV (Hamburg Public Transport Association) by the end of next year. In addition, MAN, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) and haulier Jakob Weets will be cooperating to test fully autonomous trucks at the Altenwerder Container Terminal. Moreover, MOIA will be adding to its service and increasing its fleet from the current 200 vehicles to 500. Hamburg has expanded its infrastructure for e-mobility, and now has over 1,000 public charging points, making it a nationwide leader.

Jürgen Rittersberger, General Secretary and Senior Vice President Group Strategy at Volkswagen: “Hamburg is and remains an ideal partner for the Volkswagen Group. Over the last three years we have trialed and implemented numerous projects in the city. For example, we have tested autonomous driving and parking, put MOIA on the road, and forged ahead with electrification. Together with the city of Hamburg, we want to continue this success story with further concrete projects and to work on making mobility as sustainable, efficient and safe as possible. An important example is the start of WeShare in spring 2020.”

Michael Westhagemann, Senator for Economics, Transport and Innovation: “Our assessment of the partnership is very positive: Volkswagen’s engagement in the field of urban mobility helps us lower traffic emissions, introduce new alternative mobility services and gather experience in shaping tomorrow’s mobility. All of this supports our ambition to be a model city for future urban mobility. We are delighted to be extending the partnership beyond the ITS World Congress in 2021.”

Phillip Reth, CEO of Volkswagen WeShare: “After Berlin, Hamburg is the second city in Germany where we are offering people a 100% local emission-free electric fleet for their individual everyday mobility. The city offers excellent conditions for this. Apart from providing a significant number of vehicles in Hamburg, we are also planning to establish competitive operations in the city.”

The WeShare rollout is scheduled for spring 2020. The fleet will comprise over 1,000 e-Golf and e-up! During the course of next year, they will be joined by the first all-electric ID.3 models. As in Berlin, WeShare in Hamburg will operate based on a free-floating system – in other words, there are no fixed collection points, in order to offer customers maximum flexibility and availability.

MOIA also provides a meaningful addition to current passenger transport systems with its full-electric ridesharing service and – like WeShare – is projected to feature in the “switchh” platform of Hamburg’s Hochbahn metro system. The app offers integrated on-demand mobility services. The MOIA fleet is to be increased from the present 200 vehicles to 500.

The projects implemented under the first stage of the strategic mobility partnership have also been successful. The findings of the cooperation between MAN and public transport operators Hamburg Hochbahn metro system and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein (VHH) were incorporated direct in the development of the new all-electric MAN Lion’s City E bus. Now, the first MAN Lion’s City E buses are to go into regular service in the city’s public transport network. In addition, a second life storage system will be connected to the charging network at the VHH depot to test the behavior of used batteries after service in buses and in stationary use under real-life conditions. A team from Group Innovation at Volkswagen AG has already been able to present significant progress in mastering complex situations on the test track for automated and connected driving in Hamburg. The test findings are being incorporated in development work at the newly founded Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH.

Audi has successfully tested and demonstrated networking between traffic lights and vehicles to improve traffic flow and provide driver support under the “Traffic Light Information” pilot project in Hamburg. In Ingolstadt, Audi’s traffic light information system service has been available for new series models since this summer. Further German cities, including Hamburg, are to join this serial service.

The Volkswagen brand has rolled out the “Clean Air” action as part of the “Hamburg eDrive” initiative, under which some 200 electric vehicles were delivered to private customers, enterprises and public service authorities at special conditions. Up to 400 vehicles, mainly e-Golf and e-up!, are being made available to Volkswagen dealers in Hamburg under this action.

In addition to implementing concrete projects, Hamburg and the Volkswagen Group are also driving the future of intelligent transport systems (ITS). One important milestone in this regard is Hamburg’s successful bid to host the 2021 ITS World Congress. Volkswagen AG actively supported the bid, is one of the main partners of the ITS World Congress, and holds the chair of the Host Committee.