The mobility sector is at a turning point. Investment is recovering after the correction that followed the 2021 peak, autonomous vehicles are moving from pilots to commercial deployment, and cities around the world are beginning to reshape how people move. For transport leaders, understanding where capital is going and why has never been more important.
In this episode, Dr. Kaan Yildizgoz speaks with Dr. Timo Möller, partner at McKinsey and co-leader of McKinsey’s Center for Future Mobility. Timo draws on McKinsey’s global research to examine how investor priorities have shifted from growth to profitability, where the next wave of value is forming across autonomous, electric, and shared mobility, and why the pace of electrification looks very different depending on which region you are operating in.
If you are leading or advising a public transport organisation, this episode offers a grounded, data-informed perspective on what is coming, how fast, and where the real opportunities lie between now and 2030.
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Host: Dr. Kaan Yildizgoz
Producer: Mike Cartmel
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Transcript
Interview with Dr Timo Möller – Episode 21
Podcast Intro
[:Kaan: Thank you for listening to Mobility Redefined, brought to you by Modaxo. For more insights and information, please visit mobilityredefined.com. That is mobilityredefined.com.
Meet Dr Timo Möller
Kaan: Welcome to the Mobility Redefined podcast, where we explore the leadership, strategy, and innovation shaping how the world is moving. I am Dr. Kaan Yildizgoz, and today I am delighted to welcome Dr. Timo Möller, partner at McKinsey, and co-leader of McKinsey's Center for Future of Mobility.
Timo and his team closely track global mobility trends all around the world, and they also work with different mobility shapers and incumbents from different countries. Welcome, Dr. Timo. Thank you for joining me.
Timo: Thanks for having me, Kaan.
Kaan: It will be a pleasure to discuss with you today and get your insights.
Mobility Funding Reset
[:opped significantly after the:nto the mobility sector since:[:Kaan: And what fundamental change do you see in how investors are evaluating mobility opportunities today?
ofitability, versus just the [:Where Capital Flows Now
Kaan: And if you look at different sub-verticals — autonomous, connectivity, electrification, shared mobility — where do you see capital becoming more disciplined and selective?
Timo: I think that general trend of discipline, as you call it, is true across basically all investments flowing into the mobility space. If you go through what we call ACES — or have been calling ACES — we see a very stable inflow of investment into the autonomous space, while it is moving more into AV integration into ecosystem builds, and so on.
nts into the electrification [:Kaan: Thank you, Dr. Timo.
Robotaxis Go Commercial
ercial services operating in [:Timo: I think we have been seeing this in our work with autonomous disruptors over the last couple of years already — that the focus is really shifting from the technology itself and the hardware and software stack. While there is still money flowing into this area and things still need to be solved, the focus is shifting more towards building AV ecosystems. What I mean by this is mostly how the value chain end to end is being built in a given city. That starts with obviously the hardware — the vehicles themselves. Who is financing them? Then who is operating that fleet and maintaining it? How is it built and connected into mobility as a service, or into the other modes of transport in that city?
[:Cars Become AI Native
Kaan: I was also following the discussions happening at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, and your team was there. When I look at your team's report, they were emphasising the shift from perception-centric autonomy to reasoning-based, AI-driven systems, alongside centralised compute architectures and rising semiconductor intensity. My question is: is the vehicle becoming an AI-native platform today?
Timo: I think the answer is [:Hence hardware and software linked to that are clearly the driver behind autonomous vehicles. But even ADAS-enabled vehicles — advanced driver assistance systems — and the infotainment in a non-autonomous vehicle require a lot of software and hardware to make all of this happen. So even there, the technology dimension is very important.
[:I would read into this that consumers see it as a given that their vehicles get smarter. They expect it, but it is not necessarily the most important differentiator when buying a car.
Kaan: Thank you.
Electrification By Region
[:Kaan: We have been talking about the main trend of autonomous mobility. But another area you have been touching on is electrification, which is a very significant trend in the mobility sector over the last ten to twenty years. How do you assess where electrification is going? From my own experience, particularly on the shared mobility side — buses, taxis, and individual use cars — China has been leading the main drive in recent years. How do you see the next ten years from the perspective of electric vehicles and electrification?
er pull for electrification. [:At the other end, I would say, is the US, where we are seeing the market stalling for electrification, given the political environment and the incentive situation there. It has not yet reached a level where there is a consumer pull — it was still in a governmental push stage. So it is probably falling further behind in terms of electrification.
tle bit in the middle field, [:I think the reality we need to live with is that we have different speeds of electrification across the globe. For global players active everywhere, that means they need to adapt to those different speeds in the powertrain field.
and of buses in particular. [:Micromobility Goes Habitual
% in:I would clearly confirm that [:s the private car. All other [:I would definitely agree that micromobility — both private and shared — is here to stay and to grow. The conclusion is that this is very helpful for how we do mobility in cities. Micromobility is perfectly complementary to classical public transport, but also to what I would call the new public transport — autonomous shuttles or robo-shuttles. Micromobility is definitely filling a gap here and should become part of the future mobility ecosystem of every city in the world.
an accessory today — it is [:2030 Value Pools Outlook
red mobility. Looking towards:Timo: Basically all of the ones you have just mentioned are not yet at a mature stage and are going to grow. We are just at the tipping point where these themes and topics are really becoming relevant, scaling, and becoming genuine market segments to play in.
ave and also that this trend [:Kaan: We have touched on a wide range of areas — the investment landscape, the approach of investors to the sector and its sub-verticals — and it has been great. You have shared a structured and strategic view on autonomy, artificial intelligence, electrification, shared mobility, and the evolving investment landscape.
Closing Vision And Wrap
eners of Mobility Redefined? [:Timo: Yes. I think we should just be embracing the potential of all of this and be positive about the opportunities we have to shape the future urban mobility ecosystem. Very often this whole shift is looked at as a transformation we need to manage — things are changing, things are complicated. I would rather turn it around.
ities to improve our quality [:Kaan: Thank you so much, Dr. Timo Möller, for joining us today on this episode of Mobility Redefined and sharing your experience and your view of the future. I also want to thank our listeners for tuning in today, and I look forward to bringing them together for the next episode.
Timo: Thanks a lot, Dr. Kaan.
Outro And Subscribe
r latest episodes. Thank you [: