MaaS app Whim ‘to cover 60 countries in next five years’

Whim, the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app which gives users access to transport packages on a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription basis, has announced ambitious growth plans. “Within the next five years, we want to cover 60 countries,” Whim co-founder Kaj Pyyhtia (pictured) told ITS International. At present Whim, which is owned by MaaS Global, is available in just two countries, but Pyyhtia insists the target is achievable. The service was launched in Birmingham, UK, last week, to cover the
April 9, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

8727 Whim, the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app which gives users access to transport packages on a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription basis, has announced ambitious growth plans. “Within the next five years, we want to cover 60 countries,” Whim co-founder Kaj Pyyhtia (pictured) told ITS International. At present Whim, which is owned by MaaS Global, is available in just two countries, but Pyyhtia insists the target is achievable.

The service was launched in Birmingham, UK, last week, to cover the West Midlands region, and has been running for two years in Helsinki, Finland. It is due to launch in Antwerp, Belgium, covering the Flanders area, shortly.

Pyyhtia says the company has been investigating possibilities for Whim in other UK cities as well as Berlin and Munich in Germany, Vienna in Austria, Montreal in Canada, and Singapore.

It models itself on mobile phone companies, offering consumers the use of buses, trams, trains, bikes, taxis and hire cars, depending on the package they choose.

In addition to pay-as-you-go, Whim offers monthly fees of £99 (for unlimited public transport with taxis and car hire) and £349 (unlimited public transport, all taxi rides within a three-mile radius of your location and up to 30 days’ car hire per month).

MaaS Global is initially looking to sign up 500 people to the scheme in Birmingham.

The company temporarily installs a three-storey house the size of a parking space at its launches, to illustrate to consumers what can be achieved when cars are removed from the streets.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • MaaS comes to Scottish Highlands
    July 9, 2021
    HiTrans app covers ferries to Scotland's islands as well as train, bus, taxis and car hire
    Read More
  • Ush & Poppy take AVs to Antwerp-Bruges
    February 24, 2025
    Vay app offers autonomous mobility solutions in Brussels and Las Vegas
    Read More
  • Road user charging comes a step closer in Oregon
    December 19, 2017
    Having been the first US state to introduce the gas tax a century ago, Oregon is now blazing the road user charging trail. Colin Sowman looks at progress to date. For more than a decade, authorities in Oregon have known of the impending decline in fuels tax income and while revenue increased by more than 5% in 2016, that growth will slow considerably this year and income is projected to start declining in 2020.
    Read More
  • Zipcar founder: ‘Car-dominant city has reached its zenith’
    May 23, 2018
    Zipcar co-founder Robin Chase has called on urban authorities to embrace multimodal transport in a bid to improve mobility.“The value of a car-dominant city has reached its zenith,” she says in an interview with ITS International. “The city regulatory and physical infrastructure has been built on a personal car-dominant infrastructure. We have spent the last 100 years making car travel in cities the most convenient and cheapest way to the exclusion of everything else.” That creates problems, she
    Read More

Highlighted Content