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| © CNET Whatever M turns out to be, I hope they offer the V60 for sharing, because I love this car. |
By Andrew Krok, Roadshow
The two best known things named M are probably BMW's performance division and James Bond's boss, but Volvo thinks it can lay claim to that single-letter name with the launch of its new mobility brand.
Volvo Cars announced Wednesday that it will launch a standalone mobility company named simply M. The goal, per the company's release, is to provide "dependable, on-demand access to cars and services through an intuitive app." So, for now, it appears limited to traditional mobility services, largely based around car-sharing.
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In fact, it's absorbing one of Volvo's previous ventures to that end. Sunfleet, a Swedish car-sharing operation with more than 1,700 cars, will be folded into M in 2019. Sweden will also be home to M's development efforts, with a beta of its platform slated for release this autumn. You'll have to wait a bit longer than that to see the fruits of Volvo's labors, though. Volvo said that M will launch in both Sweden and the US in the spring of 2019.
So what will it be doing before then? M is also working on a proprietary learning technology that will ask users about their needs and take heed of their preferences and habits, ultimately offering more personalized services based on all that.
Sounds vague, right? Well, it is, but M promises that some more specific details will make their way through the pipeline later this year.
