RUN BETTER SERVICE FOR LESS: BENTELER MOBILITY BRINGS OPTIMIZATION, AUTOMATION AND FINANCING TOGETHER FOR TRANSIT AGENCIES
- Agencies can rapidly model different service scenarios based on actual demand to reduce costs and improve their service
- Financing structured across a multi-year term, reducing upfront investment and enabling faster fleet build-up within existing budgets
- Agnostic by design: ioki operates any manufacturer's fleet and HOLON runs on any autonomous software, so agencies are not locked in
NEW YORK and CHICAGO, Sept. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- BENTELER Mobility is introducing its turnkey modular mobility solution to the U.S. market at APTA TRANSform & EXPO 2026, booth 2708. The offering addresses a central challenge for transit agencies: improving service despite constrained budgets. It allows agencies to rapidly model different service scenarios based on actual demand – for example, how to deliver better service within a given budget, redesign routes or identify new routes that can operate sustainably. What traditionally requires months of planning can be assessed across multiple scenarios in a fraction of the time. The resulting service can then be managed on an integrated platform, with automation applied where it makes operational and economic sense. Flexible financing allows the program to be integrated into an agency's existing fleet replacement cycle.
The offering brings together complementary capabilities from across BENTELER: AI platform ioki provides network analytics and an integrated platform for managing fixed-route, on-demand and autonomous services. HOLON contributes its purpose-built, ADA-accessible autonomous shuttle for up to 15 passengers. BENTELER Mobility integrates these elements and provides financing solutions that structure the vehicles, digital platform and deployment support as predictable operating costs rather than a major upfront capital request.
One modular offering built around each customer's starting point
"Transit agencies are under growing pressure to protect service and improve performance despite constrained budgets," said Tobias Liebelt, CEO of BENTELER Mobility. "We help them identify where change will make the biggest difference and bring together the right combination of service design, vehicles, software, infrastructure, operations and financing – built around their existing network, operating model and budget. With one point of coordination from planning through operations, agencies can reduce complexity, move beyond pilots and deliver reliable, financially sustainable service every day. The result is a start-to-finish mobility ecosystem."
Transit agencies can use the complete offering or select individual elements that complement capabilities and partners already in place.
ioki contributes data-driven analytics and an operating platform. With ioki's digital twin and scenario modeling, agencies can model route changes or new service concepts against actual ridership patterns and cost structures before implementation. This lets planners identify which service configurations deliver cost-effective operations. Once decided, the ioki platform manages the day-to-day execution, orchestrating fleet operations through one system and passenger interfaces across different forms of transit.
HOLON provides the purpose-built HOLON urban autonomous shuttle. The vehicle is ADA-accessible and carries 15 passengers, with automatic wheelchair harnessing that secures a passenger without an operator doing it by hand.
BENTELER Mobility's financing solution completes the offering by removing a key barrier to deployment: high upfront investment. By spreading the cost of vehicles, platform and deployment support across a multi-year term, agencies can build up fleets faster with the budgets already available to them. Costs remain predictable and can be aligned with existing fleet replacement cycles instead of requiring a separate capital program.
A growing U.S. foundation
The approach coincides with ioki's upcoming expansion into the United States. ioki expands into the U.S. market with a new subsidiary and local team. In Europe, ioki's platform has already supported more than 200 transit services and served more than 10 million passengers. In addition, the company has analyzed and simulated billions of mobility patterns and citizen journeys to identify demand and efficiency potential in existing transit networks.
BENTELER Mobility will present the turnkey solution at booth 2708 at APTA TRANSform & EXPO in Chicago, Oct. 4–7, 2026, including a digital twin of the Chicago network built for the show. Visitors can run a service change against it and see what it saves and who it affects.
About BENTELER Mobility
BENTELER Mobility, the start to finish mobility ecosystem, is part of the wider BENTELER Group. It incorporates ioki, HOLON, and the BENTELER Mobility Financing solution. AI platform ioki plans, manages, and optimizes transit operations; HOLON provides ADA-accessible autonomous shuttles; while the BENTELER Mobility Financing solution relieves partners of the capital burden needed to implement the next stage of mobility. Agencies can take the complete solution or select individual elements that complement their existing capabilities.
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