A partnership between Sofico and BattMobility has resulted in a new mobility app for BattMobility customers to select, book and drive one of the company’s electric cars, bikes or scooters.

Chief technical officer, Piet Maes, Sofico

Fleet and mobility software provider, Sofico, sees the new app as a key part of its product development road map, with similar multi-modal mobility solutions, or Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) increasingly sought by its customer base and with wider implications for fleets.

Sofico’s chief technical officer, Piet Maes, said the car-sharing app was an important development with implications for its customer base looking for MaaS services. “With the shift away from ownership towards usership, it is no longer about the vehicle but increasingly about the driver experience,” he said.

“Car manufacturers are reinventing themselves as mobility service providers by bundling subscription models with driver-oriented services and peer-to-peer sharing, as part of a move towards on-demand instant access to vehicles.

“Meanwhile, fleet and leasing operators want to manage the usage of their vehicles with greater and different granularity, ranging from minutes to years. In addition to long term products, they are also increasingly offering ultra-short term rental and car-sharing services to their fleet customers,” he said.

“This new app fulfills a strategic need for us and allows us to offer the same car-sharing and mobility functionality to other Sofico customers – either as a complement to the Miles core proposition or as a completely stand-alone point solution.”

Work on the app began late last year to create an electric car-sharing platform and reservation app for BattMobility, which is aimed at providing greater mobility options for both private and business customers in the local community.

Each BattMobility vehicle has a fixed charging point and a community of typically four to six primary users within the vicinity, yet remains optionally accessible to other members in the broader BattMobility network.

The app provides users with an overview of the available vehicles, either instantly or scheduled for a later date, and is used to start and end the booking, as well as opening the car to access the keys.

The app pinpoints the location and the battery level of the vehicle and allows photos of the vehicle’s condition to be relayed to BattMobility. To facilitate coordination of adjacent shares, the details of previous and next users can be accessed, and users can communicate directly with each other about the vehicle or handover via in-app chat.