As a global provider of mobility solutions, Europcar Mobility Group is joining the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Alliance, whose goal is to promote the integration of various transport services into a single mobility service accessible on demand.

The Europcar Mobility Group Public Affairs Director, Jehan de Thé, is also joining the Alliance’s Board of Directors for two years.

Created by a public-private partnership, the MaaS Alliance aims to create the foundations for a common approach to MaaS. The main goal is to facilitate the implementation of a single, open market in Europe that allows for the full deployment of MaaS.

“On its historical car rental business, Europcar Mobility Group built the fundamentals of the usage and sharing economies into its core business – mobility – a long time ago,” Caroline Parot, CEO of the Europcar Mobility Group Management Board, said in a statement. “Urban mobility issues have changed considerably in recent years. This has prompted us to ramp up our diversification efforts to include new mobility services such as car and scooter sharing, chauffeur services, peer-to-peer car rental, etc. We hope to continue supporting this trend by discussing with other public and private players in the sector ideas for new transport solutions, which are simpler, smarter, more economical and more environmentally friendly ways of getting from A to B, and which are real alternatives to owning private cars.”

By offering various transport options in a single and unique platform, whether they be public transport, carsharing, taxis, car rental, or even a combination of these, MaaS aims to give its users access to a package of mobility solutions through the use of a single reservation and payment channel so that they do not have to use multiple ticketing and payment services.

It is an issue which is both critical and topical for many European cities and the discussions underway in Paris are shedding light on it and its importance.

Related: Europcar Rebrands, Now 'Europcar Mobility Group'