Mobility

Looking at not just today but toward the future as well, mobility companies are focusing on innovation and bringing their technologies to a wider reach of people to meet different travel needs.

What role does Mexico City play within Beat’s global business strategy?

MAURICIO LOPEZ We aspire to be leaders in Latin America. In order to do so, there is no scenario where we are not leaders or co-leaders in Mexico, starting with Mexico City. Other cities are also extremely important to us, such as Guadalajara and Monterrey. The pandemic slowed down our growth and geographical coverage ambitions, though we will continue once things pick up again. Our strategy in Mexico City is to bring affordable transportation without sacrificing the income drivers can earn, and shortly offer a more varied portfolio of services for different users and occasions. We will bring a different set of services to the market by offering affordable transportation with all our underlying technology to ensure safety and convenience. After 45 days, we have had a great reception to this model from both customers and drivers alike. Many people are interested in opting in and working for a project like Beat Tesla, and passengers are also thrilled with what we are bringing to market here.

What innovations or changes to the business model is DiDi looking to incorporate?

JUAN ANDRES PANAMA When the economy was reopened in June/July, we focused on making our services more accessible and increasing our standards of hygiene on the platform. In terms of accessibility, we focused on adapting our pricing to better reflect the demand, and we created a service called DiDi Economy that focused on providing passengers with lower-cost trips while supporting drivers to get additional income, specifically during times with the lowest demand. We also created two new services to adapt to the new reality: DiDi Entrega, delivery support with the vehicles in the platform; and DiDi Protect, where we offered the highest standards of hygiene in the industry. On the driver side, we also focused on multiple actions. The first thing we did was create a global fund of USD10 million where we helped drivers in the event they or a family member was diagnosed with COVID-19. After that, we focused on educational programs so that they could know exactly what to expect on trips and how to react in specific situations.

What is your strategy with regards to electric cars?

ML Beat is a tech company, and our mission is to bring technology for a better urban life. This innovative Beat Tesla model can and should coexist with the traditional ride-hailing model, offering more alternatives for more efficient, safer, faster rides that have much lesser impact on the environment. Committed to transforming the future of mobility, Beat is introducing the first and largest private all-electric vehicle service in Latin America to help build a sustainable environment for communities and support cities by developing smart transportation solutions. Beat Tesla has only been officially operating in the market for a few months, so there is a great deal of learning left to do. Beat Tesla has the largest private fast-charging facility across all of Latin America strategically located in the center and heart of Mexico City. My priority is also scaling this service and seeing how far we can take it. Then, we want to democratize this service and business model. The whole idea of vertical integration can be applied to different combinations of car models and price points. That is my focus, while at the same time continuing to position our core service and ride-hailing service and having both business models feed off of each other.

JAP It is a matter of knowing when the correct time is to increase the scale of introduction. Both electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles require a great deal of infrastructure and much more than just bringing the vehicles to the city. We need to know first how it adapts to the needs of the users and whether we have the correct partners, like the government or other companies, to scale up this infrastructure. The knowledge and experience we have built in China are a huge advantage. In terms of electric vehicles, we have the biggest network in the world: 1 million electric vehicles. In terms of autonomous vehicles, our plan is to grow this to 1 million autonomous vehicles by 2030.