Press release

Braunschweig/Erlangen/Vancouver, 16 May 2019. Volkswagen Financial Services are bundling their business activities in the field of digital parking management under the "PayByPhone" brand. As part of this process, the "travipay" app from sunhill technologies, a subsidiary of the Braunschweig-based financial services provider, is getting a new name and a new design. In future, this mobile park and pay solution will be available as "PayByPhone" in all German, Italian and Spanish app stores. The new name comes from PayByPhone Technologies Inc. in Vancouver, Canada, a company that is also a subsidiary of Volkswagen Financial Services AG and one of the world's largest smart parking providers. "With this step, we are reinforcing our strategy to become the world's largest provider of smart parking solutions. This also includes a uniform brand presence across all countries with a correspondingly high recognition factor," says Gerhard Künne, Head of the Mobility Unit at Volkswagen Financial Services. With four different product lines offered and a lower service fee, customers will also benefit from the new branding and market positioning starting at the beginning of June. Moreover, the predictive parking service, the detection of likely available parking spaces through the use of artificial intelligence, will undergo a wider rollout under the new brand name.

"Our customers in Germany have enjoyed a completely new way of paying for their parking tickets during the last few years thanks to travipay," says Matthias Mandelkow, CEO and founder of sunhill technologies GmbH, and adds: "We're now looking forward to the next step so that we can grow even stronger together with PayByPhone and extend awareness of the brand beyond the borders of Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria." And Andreas Gruber, President and CEO of PayByPhone Technologies Inc. points out: "We've been steadily growing with PayByPhone for a number of years now – not just in North America but also in Europe. The task now is to strengthen our brand together with sunhill technologies in Germany and broaden our range of services."

For travipay customers, the layout of the app will change at the beginning of June 2019. But all the familiar functions will still be there after the facelift. In addition, all parking ticket machines in the connected cities will receive the new PayByPhone look. Private customers can choose from three different product packages: Basic, Premium (including access to multi-storey car parks) and Professional (including collective invoicing). These are complemented by the new product group "PayByPhone FLEET", designed to simplify travel expense accounting for company car drivers. Furthermore, the service fee will be reduced throughout Germany to a maximum of ten percent of the respective transaction volume. No service charges are incurred in the Premium and Professional versions of the new PayByPhone app.

In addition to changing the product name, Volkswagen Financial Services are also planning to expand their "predictive parking" service, i.e. the prediction of vacant parking spaces, in the PayByPhone app. This function already exists for all users in the cities of Amberg, Düsseldorf, Kassel and Magdeburg. "Artificial intelligence and the digital networking of vehicles and infrastructure are the big new innovation drivers in the mobility sector. In future it will be all about the intelligent operation and management of traffic networks," says Künne. He also points out: "Parking will be less stressful for the customer as a result and we'll be helping to reduce unnecessary CO2 emissions caused by people driving around looking for parking spaces." The underlying database is to be substantially enlarged and improved during the second half of 2019. As soon as the pilot has proved a success, the solution will then be rolled out in what is currently planned to be 450 cities worldwide.

Information for editors:

Volkswagen Financial Services are a business division of the Volkswagen AG group of companies and comprise Volkswagen Financial Services AG along with its associated companies, Volkswagen Bank GmbH, Porsche Financial Services, and the financial services companies in the USA, Canada, and Spain that belong directly or indirectly to Volkswagen AG – with the exception of the financial services of the Scania brand and Porsche Holding Salzburg. The key business fields embrace dealer and customer financing, leasing, the bank and insurance business, fleet management and mobility offers. Volkswagen Financial Services have a total of 16,267 employees worldwide – including 7,010 alone in Germany. Volkswagen Financial Services report total assets of around EUR 207.6 billion, an operating result of EUR 2.6 billion euros and a portfolio of around 20.3 million current contracts (as at: 31.12.2018).