New initiative MaaS Catalonia launches its MaaS Manifesto

A new public-private initiative, MaaS Catalonia, has been formed in order to tackle mobility issues at a local level and develop the concept of MaaS in a coordinated manner.

The momentum for MaaS is high in Catalonia, with a growing local ecosystem in which the public sector is developing ambitious initiatives and projects. A few private companies are already providing new mobility services and others are planning to enter the market.

This new, concerted effort has received support so far from Altran, Applus Idiada, CARNET, CIT UPC, CIAC – Clúster de la Indústria d’Automoció de Catalunya, Creafutur, Edenway, Factual, Ficosa, Justmoove, KINEO, Pildo Labs, PTP – Promoció del Transport Públic, RACC, Rücker Lypsa, Saba, Seat, Sensefields, Shotl, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and XMOBA.

The main goal is to foster MaaS development and deployment and to do so, MaaS Catalonia is seeking international cooperation and global reach from the beginning to share knowledge and create new opportunities for all stakeholders on board.

“Catalonia and its capital, Barcelona, are great living labs for innovative mobility projects. Barcelona is the designated Mobile World Capital until 2023, it is host of many renowned international congresses, a world-renowned smart city and one of the leading hubs for technological start-ups in Europe,” said Daniel Serra, Project Manager, CARNET.

Martí Jofre, CEO of Factual, said: “MaaS Catalonia will promote awareness and constructive reflection among city and regional authorities about how to best take advantage of the MaaS momentum and encourage communication and cooperation between new mobility services, tech companies, start-ups, MaaS providers and local/regional government, while extending the reach and knowledge sharing with the international transport and mobility arena.”

With this in mind, MaaS Catalonia launched the MaaS Manifesto, which sets out seven principles advocating the idea of a new mobility paradigm. The main objective is to raise the interest of the widest spectrum of stakeholders in the MaaS ecosystem, not only in Catalonia but at international level, and provide a space to openly discuss the aspects that are critical for developing the MaaS paradigm to its full potential.

The MaaS Manifesto’s seven principles are:

1. MaaS should be the best value proposition for end users
2. MaaS should create benefits for the society as a whole
3. MaaS can support more efficient business models and access to new markets
4. MaaS relies on ICT Key Enabling Technologies to provide the basis for new business models and governance schemes
5. MaaS builds on effective, massive and secure data-sharing
6. MaaS development requires flexible policy and updated legal and regulatory framework
7. MaaS is an ecosystem thing.

Stakeholders sign the manifesto to declare they share its essential vision about MaaS.