• individuals and companies

  • urban logistic operators

en fr

Category: shared mobility

tomorrow, rethinking the cities in depth

Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
REBOOT

tomorrow, rethinking the cities in depth

Too densely populated, too hot and too polluted. The cities of today are no longer aligned with current social and environmental issues. The time has come to adapt rather than simply observe. Cities must be updated to focus on mobility, connectivity and sustainability. The good news is that, generally, the solutions are already out there! But they require a fundamental rethink of how cities are designed. By developing a mobility and energy transition strategy that goes beyond the traditional car, Mobilize aims to play an active role in the positive evolution of cities, in “reboot” mode.

  • energy transition
  • shared mobility
  • transport on demand

REBOOT 1: soothing the urban spaces

As the cities of tomorrow will no longer accommodate large flows of traffic, part of the space previously given over to cars will be redistributed to meet different needs. This reallocation will accelerate the decarbonization of travel, in particular with the development of cycle paths and infrastructure for storing and maintaining bicycles, parking and recharging spaces for electric vehicles, parcel storage facilities, pedestrian walkways, etc.

This reclaimed street space will open up a number of possibilities for the greening of areas, whereas trees and other shrubbery can also be used to bring nature to other forms of open space, such as rooftops or alcoves. The greening of urban spaces has multiple benefits. It helps to control air pollution, promotes the return of biodiversity to cities and creates shady, cool islands in hot weather. As a result, the use of air conditioning, which is harmful to the environment, decreases both in buildings and cars. The use of photovoltaic shading systems over parking areas, which shelter cars from the sun’s rays while recharging their batteries, also has an impact on maintaining this “temperate city”.

REBOOT 2: meeting every mobility need

Many obstacles prevent seamless and stress-free travel in cities, such as being stuck in traffic jams, looking for a parking space for a long time once you arrive at your destination, or having to pay fixed costs for your car whatever the circumstances. The development of multimodal transport solutions, via increasingly extensive public transport and soft mobility services, can address these issues. However, this is not the only solution.

The “Vehicle as a Service” (VaaS) model offers an effective and complementary response. The private car is no longer the be-all-and-end-all of transport. With VaaS, customers can select the vehicle best suited to their needs, by purchasing, leasing or car-sharing, and can opt – just as flexibly – for exclusive services to simplify their lives, as well as reducing their costs and carbon footprint. Public transport or cycles for commuting, a compact electric car for effortless door-to-door travel, a hybrid family car for a long trip as a group, etc. Mobility services should be flexible, both when travelling around the city and beyond its limits.

REBOOT 3: optimizing daily life through data

The cities of tomorrow will be smart: a city made “intelligent” through effective data management, with a view to providing services to people. With real-time mapping of the use of public space, the different local stakeholders can better tailor their solutions to users’ needs, whether in terms of mobility, energy, cleanliness, or safety, etc. For example, when applied to mobility services, if companies are aware of the traffic flows in a given place and at a given time, they can model the situation and develop a range of services that will improve the experience for everyone.

Data also has a crucial role to play in balancing the electricity grid, in order to maximize the use of low-carbon, renewable energy in the city’s energy mix. Smart charging of electric vehicles is a perfect example. The car and the electrical grid are connected via the charging station and a smartphone app – the car is charged at a time when electricity is most available on the grid, i.e. when it is the cheapest and least carbon-intensive. Conversely, when demand for electricity from the grid is greater than the overall supply, charging of the vehicle is suspended. If using a bi-directional charging system, the vehicle can even return electricity to the grid, avoiding the need to produce electricity from fossil fuels. In this way, data can be used to improve user comfort and to drive forward the energy transition.

REBOOT 4: pooling resources

In the dense and geographically-constrained areas that constitute cities, the sharing of spaces and services is both the preferable and easier option. Sharing resources is already a given in an urban environment. Cramped housing provides limited facilities to meet basic needs. To satisfy ever more diverse expectations, city residents are making the most of public space or “third places”. The rise in remote working and mobile professions is driving the creation of shared “co-working” spaces, and leisure activities and entertainment are consumed in many dedicated common spaces, etc.

In terms of mobility, people in the city are rarely far away from a transport service. Shared use of cars, bikes and scooters is a convenient solution, whether vehicles are left at drop-off stations or on the street after use. With a simple smartphone, anyone can locate the most appropriate mode of transport available in the immediate vicinity. In some cases, a smartphone is also used as a pass to operate the vehicle and pay for the journey. Sharing urban spaces and services provides a flexible solution to a wide range of needs.

Smooth, mobile, connected, shared… life will be enriching in the cities of tomorrow! Cities must strike a balance between individual benefits – in particular, consumption “on demand” – and the collective benefits of protecting the environment public health, etc. Mobilize already has solutions: a reboot to move towards simpler, more resilient, and more collective transport services, where citizens are free from the shackles of personal cars and can actively contribute to achieving carbon neutrality within the city.

ON THE SAME THEME

individual mobility: a change of gear

The transport landscape has never been quite as dynamic as it is today.

ecomobility reinvents travel

Ecomobility touches on all mobility issues and lifestyles in this era of transition to clean energy.

employees, the new migrating birds

Current challenges require from us an optimization of the resources that we have at our disposal.

[chap.2] the mobility design

Posted on by Marine Ait Amrouche
ARTEFACT

the blank page
[chap.2] the mobility design

Artefact is the video series conceived by Mobilize that tells the story of mobility through its objects.
Discover the episode focused on the starting point of ideas, the blank sheet of paper. From the automobile object to mobility services, Artefact deciphers the evolution of design!

  • connectivity
  • design
  • shared mobility
  • energy storage
  • energy transition
  • transport on demand
  • electric vehicle

 

This episode on the design for mobility is divided into two videos. Here, in the second chapter, Artefact makes a revelation: the car object is perhaps no longer the alpha and omega of mobility. Mobilize design takes into account all the touch points between the user and their mobility. From automotive design to service design, mobility is resolutely multifaceted: for people and for goods… on demand, car sharing, or even subscription.

 

Previously, in the first chapter, Artefact explained the evolution of car design…

the blank page
[chap. 1] the car design

The automobile, designed with the human being at its centre, is sometimes an extension of the individual. From car design to mobility design, the boundaries between the interior and exterior of the car are disappearing: the experience is becoming connected and seamless.

watch the video

ON THE SAME THEME

draw me an experience

Mobilize responds to the challenges and problems of travel in urban areas, designs a comprehensive experience, starts – not from the drawing board – but from the smartphone…

from “smart city” to “senseable city”

Carlo Ratti, the architect and engineer at the head of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, explains what is exactly behind this concept.

new infrastructures for sustainable transportation

Julien Villalongue, Managing director of Léonard, the Vinci Group’s foresight and innovation platform, shares his views on the mobility of the future.

[chap.1] the car design

Posted on by Marine Ait Amrouche
ARTEFACT

the blank page  the car design [chap. 1]

Artefact is the video series conceived by Mobilize that tells the story of mobility through its objects.

Discover the episode focused on the starting point of ideas, the blank sheet of paper. From the automobile object to mobility services, Artefact deciphers the evolution of design!

  • connectivity
  • design
  • shared mobility
  • transport on demand

 

This episode on the design for mobility is divided into two videos. Here, in the first chapter,  Artefact explains how design is adapting to people’s needs and is anticipating societal trends. It integrates the reduction of environmental impact as a parameter. And its seamless connected services accompany the user everywhere he goes, on board his vehicle, but not only.

 
Want to find out more? The second chapter will look in more detail at the shift from automotive design to mobility design…

the blank page the mobility design [chap. 2]

Go beyond the “car” object to conceive the automobile as a platform of services? Understand the mobility of people and goods in a complete and flexible way? Mobilize unveils its original approach to mobility design.

watch the video

ON THE SAME THEME

draw me an experience

Mobilize responds to the challenges and problems of travel in urban areas, designs a comprehensive experience, starts – not from the drawing board – but from the smartphone…

from “smart city” to “senseable city”

Carlo Ratti, the architect and engineer at the head of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, explains what is exactly behind this concept.

new infrastructures for sustainable transportation

Julien Villalongue, Managing director of Léonard, the Vinci Group’s foresight and innovation platform, shares his views on the mobility of the future.

employees, the new migrating birds

podcast mobilize
Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
OPEN WORLD

employees, the new migrating birds

(podcast in French)
  • energy transition
  • shared mobility

 

Current challenges require from us an optimization of the resources that we have at our disposal. At the top of the list: professional vehicles, the use of which can be greatly improved. In this context, business leaders have access to new partners who help them find new uses for their fleets. What are the major trends in terms of this mobility, facing environmental issues and different needs in the professional field ?

Virginie Boutueil, Deputy Director of the Laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transport (Ecole des Ponts ParisTech), and Guillaume Naegelen, Head of Mobilize Share at Mobilize, explore with you the new habits of these multimodal employees.

Intervention of Virginie Boutueil, Deputy Director of the Laboratoire Ville Mobilité Transport (Ecole des Ponts ParisTech):

What are the main trends in professional mobility?

If we focus more specifically on the question of corporate car fleets, there are some major issues to be positioned and this can be done, for example, on the French scale, which is an interesting case study. In France, company car fleets represent about 15%-16% of the total fleet of light vehicles, i.e. the total fleet in circulation, but when we say that, we must not forget that insofar as these vehicles are used particularly intensively compared to other vehicles owned by households, for example, these 15%-16% of the fleet become 25% of the kilometres travelled by light vehicles and 25%-30% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the fleet of light vehicles in circulation in France.

In fact, we are dealing with a fleet with significant environmental and energy impacts. We are also dealing with a fleet with significant social impacts. Insofar as these mobilities are intensive, there are problems of accidentology, travel safety, fatigue for the employees concerned and, finally, there are major economic impacts because in a large number of companies, and in particular large companies, but not only, mobility and car fleets in mobility represent the third largest item of expenditure after salaries and property.

These companies have perceived the changes taking place in terms of regulations and then the changes caused by climate change and the public health problems associated with local pollution. Companies positioned themselves quite early on to diversify the motorisation of their fleets, notably by introducing electric vehicles into their fleets, but also other types of motorisation: natural gas vehicles, more recently and to a more limited extent hydrogen, etc.

We are dealing with fleets that are renewed relatively quickly compared to the fleets of French households and therefore, for the public authorities, these are fleets that are interesting because they constitute a lever for the dissemination of these innovations, namely electric vehicles and other vehicles with alternative engines, in the wider French car fleet, i.e. these are vehicles that, after having been used for two, three or four years by companies, will find themselves on the second-hand vehicle market and therefore, at the disposal of French households in particular, and therefore, will facilitate the dissemination of these vehicles among French households.

Why is it important to highlight occupational categories when talking about mobility?

Work-related mobility, in general, is an important part of our daily mobility. To talk about home-to-work mobility alone, home-to-work mobility represents just over 20% of total travel in France. Three quarters of these journeys are made by car, and so we are dealing with a significant part of the environmental and energy challenges of transport.

When we carried out a study a few years ago on “What was the typical profile of households equipped with company cars in Île-de-France? for example, we realised that the most represented household profile was a high-income household, a multi-motorised household, a household living in an urban area, and a household with a head aged between 35 and 55.

This being said, what we must not overlook is that 40%, i.e. almost half of the households equipped with company cars in the Ile-de-France region, are households of intermediate or working class socio-professional category. And here, we have another profile, if I may say so, of company vehicles which is emerging, which is that of the vehicle of the maintenance technician, the building worker, the sales representative, the tool vehicle which, of course, in certain cases, can be used for home-work journeys and can, in certain cases, also be used for private mobility, but in a much more limited way than for the company vehicle I was talking about at the beginning, that is to say, the vehicle of the manager or the upper socio-professional categories.

Keeping in mind the diversity of the professions and socio-professional categories concerned by these company cars allows us to avoid a certain number of shortcuts concerning the use made of them, concerning the possibility of switching to other means of transport for the people concerned.

What about companies that provide cars to their employees today?

There are changes. There are changes of various kinds, if I may say so. Especially in times of crisis, but even before the current crisis in energy prices, in global trade, companies had undertaken to rationalise the costs associated with their fleets. Rationalisation meant both, in terms of company vehicles, trying to reduce ‘car policies’ to more reasonable levels in terms of, for example, vehicle size and emissions, with significant gains in terms of taxation for the companies concerned.

There were also efforts to rationalise the fleet of service vehicles, with, in particular, the beginnings of pooling of vehicles which, beforehand, were perhaps more directly assigned to a particular department or unit. Pooling, or even internal company car-sharing. These are developments that we have been seeing for about ten years in France and which are accelerating.

There are other developments, in particular the introduction, and here again in an accelerated way over the last few years, of vehicles with alternative engines, in particular to reduce the operating costs, i.e. some of these vehicles can represent higher investment costs for the companies, but companies, when they allocate them to the appropriate uses, can find themselves financially better off by acquiring more expensive vehicles, because the operating costs, and in particular the energy costs, but not only the insurance costs, the maintenance costs are more advantageous.

As we know, the digital revolution is largely transforming mobility. For your part, have you observed many new uses thanks to new mobilities and new services?

The changes underway in professional mobility must be seen in the broader context of changes in everyday mobility in France, Europe and the world. One of the transformations at work is the multiplication of digital platforms for shared mobility, particularly shared mobility services, whether they be taxis, VTCs, car-sharing services, carpooling services, and therefore trip-sharing services, backed up by smartphone applications, for example.

The City Mobility Transport Laboratory has set up a global observatory of digital shared mobility platforms which shows that in three years, simply by looking at 2019-2021, the number of these digital shared mobility platforms in the world has tripled. This is a phenomenon led by Europe and the United States, but in which the major emerging countries play a very important role and in which a lot of developing countries are also involved.

What is interesting is that beyond the somewhat traditional shared mobility services that I have just mentioned: taxi, VTC, vehicle sharing, whether car, bicycle, scooter, etc., what we have seen developing more rapidly in the last few years is car sharing, on the one hand, but also the services that the Americans call “alternative transport services”.

This means “alternative transport services to public transport”, i.e. transport on demand, shuttle services with a quality of service that has been greatly improved by the use of digital applications and that make new developments possible in terms of mobility to get to work in the morning, to get to clients during the day, etc., including in areas where public transport with capacity: the RER, the metro and even the bus, do not make sense because they would not have sufficient capacity.

In these segments of mobility services: transport on demand, transport by shuttle, shared taxi, mini-bus taxi, which are very fast-growing segments in a number of developing countries, in particular, we could see interesting and favourable developments in our developed countries, in cities and in the countryside, as a result of these new applications.

Intervention of Guillaume Naegelen, Head of Mobilize Share at Mobilize:

The transformation of the mobility sector is a fact, but would you say that it is linked to changes in consumer expectations

This evolution comes from both and finally, if we look at it a little, there are four major factors that we have been able to identify that are changing the way we consume mobility. The first is the environmental factor, where we clearly realise that people are increasingly sensitive to this issue, both the general public and companies, which are increasingly being asked to decarbonise their employees’ journeys. We could mention, for example, the mobility plan, which is the former company travel plan.

Another factor which is making this mobility evolve is the societal factor, in particular, which we can see through Covid, which has led to the emergence of teleworking and therefore, has created alternating rhythms between presence at home and presence in the workplace. If we look at a little bit here, there is a TraCov survey which was carried out in France which shows that in 2019, about 4% of workers will be teleworking and then, in 2021, we will reach 27%. These are years that have been somewhat disrupted by Covid, so it will be interesting to see how the figures evolve, but in any case, there is a long-term trend.

Another important factor is the economic factor. As a general rule, everyone looks at the cost of travel, including individuals, and this was very well illustrated in the previous podcast, which showed that the cost of travel is a major factor in the choice of mobility. This economic factor can also be found within companies, and it remains an important PI case for a fleet manager to control and optimise the cost of employee travel.

Then, the last point is the technological factor. Today, the smartphone is everywhere. We use it to communicate, we use it to make purchases, we use it to use public transport, we use it to get information. Once again, there is this trend of “everything, immediately, everywhere”. In particular, we see the concept of “ATAWAD”, which stands for “Any time, anywhere, any device”, which I think reflects quite well the way in which we use these digital tools, i.e. anytime, anywhere and on any device, i.e. with our phone, with our computer. In any case, technology is clearly part of the way we live from now on and therefore we have to adapt to these factors, adapt our offers to meet these different needs and this evolution of mobility.

To what extent is this transformation also accelerated by environmental concerns?

This environmental factor is preponderant and at Mobilize, in any case, we are completely convinced of this, more than a conviction, that it is a necessity, in the end. The genesis of the creation of this brand is to be an activist brand that wants to play a role in optimising the carbon impact of our travel by bringing together the best of technology, engineering, design and finance to offer a more sustainable mobility.

This environmental factor is very important and when we talk to our clients, in this case companies, who also have these mobility problems, we realise that we are clearly in the same situation. Companies have a double objective today, which is to reduce the carbon impact of travel, and this desire is also being pushed by the public authorities, and at the same time to optimise the costs of this travel. Of course, this switch to electric vehicles and to optimising their use will raise a lot of questions: questions about recharging, questions about the installation of charging stations, questions about car-sharing technologies, etc., and that’s where we want to position ourselves to help companies in this transition, through solutions that are adapted to their own context.

In this episode we talk about migratory employees, i.e. people who work using several modes of transport. Do you think this could be more than a trend?

Clearly, yes. As we were saying, Covid has changed the way we work and the way we travel. Today, I think there is still a balance to be found. We can see, moreover, that there is quite a lot of heterogeneity in the way telework is done in Europe. If we look at the figures, I came across a Eurostat statistic which shows that in 2020, a disturbed year because we had two phases of confinement, but nevertheless, in 2020, on one side of the spectrum we had the UK which had about 5% of its population teleworking and then, on the other side, Finland which had 25% of its population teleworking.

We realise that there is quite a lot of heterogeneity within countries, which pushes us to propose flexible solutions and in any case, which will allow us to adapt to the contexts in which we deploy them. Besides that, telework has brought a lot of positive points which suggest that it is much more than a trend. Some of these include a better life/life balance, spending less time in transport, more time with family or simply being able to live further away.

This private life/life balance, we also see that the periods of confinement, they have finally shown that telework works. There is an institute, the Sapiens Institute, which carried out a study in 2020, which shows that the teleworking phases have enabled an increase of 22% in productivity. Once again, this was a rather exceptional year, so I don’t know if we should take these figures as they are, but in any case, we realise that telework works and this is a rather positive point of these periods.

This trend of telework is a fundamental one, in the sense that it is in everyone’s interest, but also in the interest of companies which will be able, for example, to reduce the amount of land they have in their buildings, with people alternating between time spent in the office and time spent at home. They will also be able to increase their attractiveness in terms of human resources, by recruiting people who live further away. Teleworking now allows people to live much further away from their place of work. It is really the idea of saying that there is both an interest from the point of view of employees and also an interest from the point of view of companies, a sort of win-win situation which suggests that this is a phenomenon which will last for a long time. It has yet to find its balance, but it is more than a passing trend.

How can Mobilize respond to these new mobility challenges?

I would say in several ways. Generally speaking, by being present on the entire value chain, to be able to offer solutions that are complete and packaged, i.e. for a company, electrified vehicles, accompanied by the installation of charging stations, accompanied by roaming charging solutions, vehicles that can also be… We were talking about electric vehicles, but vehicles that can also be adapted to different types of use and vehicle sharing solutions, what we could call corporate car sharing, which will allow employees to share a vehicle.

Perhaps more specifically, with Mobilize Share. Mobilize Share, which, in a few words, is one of the mobility solutions deployed by Mobilize and operated by the dealer network. Today, there are about 1,000 dealerships in nearly 10 countries, with just over 16,000 vehicles. Here, we rely on the dealer network which, in addition to being a local player, who knows its environment, will be able to adapt the mobility offers according to this context and the needs which are identified on its territory, both for private individuals and professionals.
It is really by being in contact with these local companies that it will be able to adapt the solution to the needs of that company. Today we talk much more about multimodality, i.e.: is it still relevant to have a vehicle, when our mobility needs vary between, sometimes, a utility vehicle, sometimes a private vehicle, sometimes a city car, sometimes a vehicle that is more road-oriented and then, sometimes for a few hours, or even a few days, or even a few weeks? This is where we really realise that we need to adapt our solutions to the local context, so who better to do this than the dealer, who is spread across the territory and knows the specificities of this local context?

When a company uses Mobilize Share to share its pool of vehicles with its employees, the employee will use this application to reserve his vehicle for private or professional use, and the employee will use the same application if he wishes to use vehicles located, for example, at Nice station, to continue his professional journey. In other words, they have the choice of either taking vehicles located within their company or using multimodality and travelling by train to their destination and finishing their journey using a Mobilize Share vehicle, which will be the same application, once again, as the one they use for their company vehicles, to complete their journey and go to their client’s home or destination.

What about projects abroad?

Today, Mobilize is already a brand of the international Renault group. If I take the example of Mobilize Share, which we talked about, as I said, it is deployed in nearly 10 countries, and about 1,000 dealers are currently using or deploying this solution on their territory. We are mainly present in Europe, in Latin America, with Colombia and Brazil.

If I take the example of Brazil, Renault Brazil began in 2019 to deploy car-sharing solutions through this Mobilize Share solution, initially for its employees, for professional use, and quickly realised that there was a particular desire to deploy this use on a personal basis as well, i.e. in the evening, at the weekend, when these vehicles are not used for professional needs.

Very quickly, there was a strong interest with a distribution of use which was intended to be 50/50 between professional and personal use and finally, Brazil used its personal experience through the Renault employees to propose this solution to other companies. Today, more than 1,400 employees use this solution and it contributes to what we said at the beginning, the work/life balance and to having solutions which are complete and which will allow, afterwards, to optimise the rate of use of these vehicles. Because for the company, when these vehicles are not used for professional purposes, being able to rent them to its employees contributes to the optimisation of the cost that it is looking for, it contributes, of course, to the comfort of the employee and it contributes to putting more people in one and the same car, so it also has an environmental impact, somewhere.

This is the end of this episode, thank you Virginie Bouteuil and Guillaume Naegelen for sharing your vision with us. Thank you for following us and see you soon for new episodes of Open World with Mobilize and Usbek & Rica.

ON THE SAME THEME

individual mobility: a change of gear

The transport landscape has never been quite as dynamic as it is today.

connectivity working to support low-carbon mobility

To promote carbon neutrality, Mobilize is putting data at the service of mobility and energy.

electric charging: a new version of the game of 1000 miles

More ecological, more economical, more responsible: driving an electric car is undoubtedly a sensible choice for getting around. It also raises some questions.

individual mobility: a change of gear

mobilité individuelle mobilize
Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
REBOOT

individual mobility: a change of gear

The transport landscape has never been quite as dynamic as it is today. The vast range of transport solutions and mobility apps that are currently available now allow everyone to take the driving seat when embarking on a journey. Real-life Mario Kart game, anyone?! Car subscription services, on-demand rental, multimodal transport solutions, shared mobility… What matters most is no longer the type of transport we choose, but rather the effect our travel decisions have on easing traffic congestion and in turn reducing the associated greenhouse gas emissions. Keen to secure pole position in the race to travel more sustainably? Mobilize offers a range of solutions that are guaranteed to be right up your street! Time for a closer look.

  • brand vision
  • shared mobility
  • transport on demand

Zity by Mobilize: the any time, any place urban car-sharing service

Based on the ‘free floating’ principle, which allows vehicles to be dropped off and picked up anywhere at all, Zity gives drivers access to 1,300 all-electric self-service vehicles (Renault Zoés and Dacia Springs) scattered around the streets of several major European cities, including Madrid, Paris, Lyon and Milan. Short-term car-sharing has never been so easy! Because Zity by Mobile is also an application to locate, book, unlock and return a vehicle, all with a simple tap of the screen.

Mobilize Share: the country-wide flexible car-sharing solution

Need a vehicle for 1 hour, 1 day or 1 month? Renting a vehicle that suits your ad hoc needs is easy with the Mobilize Share app. Car-share vehicles can be picked up from numerous designated locations that are part of the Renault Group network… meaning there’s sure to be one somewhere nearby! This means that any trip can be managed without hassle-free!

Bipi: the “on-demand” personal car rental service

Built around the principle of a platform that provides access to a vast range of vehicles, Bipi allows users to swap their car at will to suit their current needs and desires. The monthly subscription is all-inclusive, covering the rental charge, insurance, maintenance, assistance, etc. It can be easily managed and adjusted online as and when required. Offering a brand-new approach to the way cars are used, Bipi gives everyone easy access to the perfect individual mobility solution without having to buy a car.

Mobilize Fleet Monitoring: your corporate car fleet at a glance

The Mobilize Fleet Connect Iris Live service is a fully integrated car fleet management system that allows fleet managers to keep a watchful eye on their vehicles by giving them real-time remote access to all the data each vehicle has generated. It offers the perfect way of tracking each car’s usage rate, calculating fuel consumption, and assessing the ageing of each fleet… enabling fleet managers to make better informed decisions.

Mobilize Duo and Bento: a new take on cars

Veritable urban micro-vehicles, the Duo and Bento provide a brand-new, all-electric and connected way to get from A to B. The Duo is a two-seater quadricycle that can nip around the city streets with ease. Both a car-sharing version and a no-licence version will be available when the solution is launched at the end of 2023. The Bento is the utility version that is due to hit the market in 2024. This particular model boasts a 700-litre box on the back, making it the perfect solution for last-mile deliveries. Constraint-free urban mobility at its best! Just like the Limo, the Duo and Bento will not be available for purchase: they will be marketed as a subscription package that includes a comprehensive range of services.

ON THE SAME THEME

connectivity working to support low-carbon mobility

To promote carbon neutrality, Mobilize is putting data at the service of mobility and energy. Digital is at the core of everyday apps and platforms.

a new car-free generation?

The younger generation wants to live without a car, but without staying put… So how can the automotive sector meet their expectations? Can the many smartphone mobility applications be enough to meet their travel needs?

ecomobility reinvents travel

Ecomobility touches on all mobility issues and lifestyles in this era of transition to clean energy.

cities, our modern-day mobility labs

villes laboratoires mobilité
Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
SCOREBOARD

cities, our modern-day mobility labs

Our cities are some of the world’s most densely occupied spaces, and as such serve as permanent laboratories for the ecological transition, notably when it comes to mobility. They are the focal point for numerous initiatives that seek to introduce new travel habits or tools aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Mobilize – with its shared mobility, on-demand mobility and EV charging solutions – is playing an active part in helping cities along the road towards carbon neutrality.

  • energy storage
  • energy transition
  • shared mobility

Improving the green energy mix

The self-service electric vehicles that are currently deployed in the Dutch city of Utrecht have the ability to feed some of the electricity from their batteries back into the grid once hooked up to the city’s public charging points. This system, which uses vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, helps balance out the grid by only recharging batteries when demand is low and by returning energy to the grid during peak load times. It’s a shining example of how to encourage the use of intermittent renewable energy sources.

Providing à la carte mobility

Helsinki, a city with a reputation for setting the standard in the environmental protection sphere, decided to introduce an integrated on-demand mobility solution in the form of a single app, which led to the Finnish capital setting up a centralized MaaS (Mobility as a Service) system. The app provides users with information on the various modes of transport available, and allows them to combine different modes in a single click, be that taxi, metro, tram, bus, car or even bike. Users can also book, plan and pay for their journeys via the app. It’s kind of like carrying an A to Z of local transport around with you in your pocket!

 

Combining comfort with practicality

Having launched the project a few years ago with 2 pilot carports, the French city of Toulouse is currently testing the use of solar canopy installations in 12 carparks across the city, covering a total of 6,100 m2. These autonomous charging stations are capable of producing 1,000 MWh of electricity each year, which is equivalent to the consumption of  350 people. Parked vehicles can enjoy the shade of the facilities and be recharged  with ultra-local green electricity.

 

Decongesting the town centre

Back in 2007, the Slovenian capital Ljubljana was one of the very first to close its centre to vehicles due to constant traffic congestion. The city council then came up with a range of alternatives to help people get around: free electric taxis for the elderly and for families with children, improvement of the cycling and public transport network, generalised 30 km/h speed limit, delivery vehicles only allowed between 6 and 10 a.m., and even a 10-hectare zone that is totally car-free. A smoother mobility for a better breathing city centre.

Encouraging soft mobility solutions

Launched in 2008, the city of London’s “low emission zone” only allows low-polluting vehicles to access the city centre. Other major European cities have since followed suit, including Antwerp, Copenhagen, Paris, Milan and Berlin. In 2019, the London scheme was extended with the introduction of an “ultra low emission zone” and even a “zero emission zone” in the very heart of the city. It operates alongside the “London Congestion Charge”, a toll scheme that restricts vehicular access to the city. Walking or using soft mobility solutions is highly recommended!

Offering free parking

Since mid-2021, rechargeable electric and hybrid vehicles that emit less than 60g of CO2 per kilometre have been eligible for 6 consecutive hours of free parking in the heart of the French capital, Paris. This initiative was introduced to complement the “green badge” system, which allows anyone with a “clean” vehicle to park in Paris free of charge for up to two hours.

Calculating energy savings

The Irish city of Dublin has set up an online eco-calculator system that estimates the CO2 emissions avoided by users who prefer public transport to private vehicles. The aim? Encourage choices have. It’s a great way of raising people’s awareness of all the environmental benefits public transport has.

 

Robotising small deliveries

Last-mile deliveries are the most critical point in city-centre e-commerce logistics. In an effort to streamline these short deliveries to end customers, the Texan city of Huston is taking the bold steps  by putting small autonomous vehicles on its pavements. Delivery robots equipped with 360° cameras and sensors are now authorised to wend their way along the city’s streets transporting food, medication and other little parcels, which are dropped directly at the recipient’s door. It’s an amazing way of mitigating congestion on the American metropolis’s roads.

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  • brand vision
  • electric vehicle
  • shared mobility

 

Mobilize offers an urban development concept that brings energy closer to where it is needed. Mobilize Iléo Concept not only allows you to recharge your car, but also to take advantage of this break to sit down, read, or enjoy a moment of conviviality, sheltered from the rain or heat. Easily identifiable from afar and harmoniously integrated into the city, this street furniture creates a real landscape.

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  • brand vision
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  • shared mobility

 

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far from the metropolises, smaller towns and rural areas carry the change

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Posted on by Sébastien Besançon
OPEN WORLD

far from the metropolises, smaller towns and rural areas carry the change

(podcast in French)
  • electric vehicle
  • energy transition
  • shared mobility

 

In a society faced with the consequences of global warming and increasingly concerned about its impact on the environment, individual cars are becoming the symbol of an outdated era. So do the decision-makers in the various communities that make up the territories chose to respond to these issues? What solutions do they put in place to ensure their inhabitants’ mobility is both sustainable and practical?

Marie Huyghe, Mobility Consultant and membre of the SCOP Odyssée Création, Research engineer at Laboratoire CNRS-CITERES, and Anne-Lise Castel, Mobility Services Deployment Director, take you on a tour of mobility far from the metropolises.

Intervention of Marie Huyghe, Mobility Consultant:

What does mobility look like today in rural or peri-urban areas?

We can characterize this mobility with many things. I’m going to focus on two of them for the moment. First, the question of modal shares, i.e. what percentage of trips are made by car, public transport, etc.. Today in rural areas, we must admit that cars are mainly used, with a modal shares of around 80 or even 90% in certain areas.

So, the car still has a lot of room, and its modal share is not decreasing much. If we look at the various surveys that have been carried out on a national scale, there was one in 2008 and there was another more recently. We can see that the modal share of the car is not changing much, but we should note that, especially since lockdown, there are interesting signals around us. If we look at what is happening with bicycles for instance, and the use of the bicycle for daily commuting and especially for leisure trips, which is clearly increasing in these rural and peri-urban areas.

The modal share is a first indicator. The other point that is interesting to explore is the distances that people in one same household in rural areas travel today. If we look at the average distances and in particular the average distances for commuting, (i.e., going from home to work), we are at distances of around 15-17 kilometers. These are significant distances in terms of distance, time, and cost for households. That’s the first thing.

And we estimate that households travel around 30 kilometers per day. That is important. However, what is interesting to me when we talk about the evolution of uses and more specifically, of the shift towards active modes of transport such as cycling and walking, is to note that today, 40% of rural trips in France are less than 5 kilometers long. And 5 kilometers is considered a distance that can be covered by an electrically assisted bicycle. Not for everyone, of course, not all the time, but in any case, it is a distance that can be done differently than by car. And as I was saying, today, most of these trips are still made by car.

DO THE INHABITANTS WANT TO CHANGE THEIR HABITS?

There are two things. Their reaction: for example, you must look at what is happening at the moment, what is happening since the increase in fuel prices with the war in Ukraine, etc. We can see that more and more residents and employees are telling their elected representatives or employers about their mobility problems. So today, we can no longer consider that the dependence on the automobile observed in these territories and in the practices of households, is satisfactory. We knew that. Today, we have a whole part of the population that is excluded from this automobile system and that finds itself with difficulties to move, access to employment, access to shops, etc.

We knew that this all-car system was not satisfactory, but today, it is more and more obvious, and households are pointing it out. That’s the reaction. Then your question was: do they want to change their habits? The answer is not so simple. There is a tendency, when we talk about ecological transition, to put a lot on individuals, to say: “Go ahead, leave your car for a while and move on”. But for people to adopt other practices, they must first be in an environment that allows them to do so.

Today, I would say that there are three players who need to get to work. There are the local authorities, whose role today is to develop the environment in which we travel, to develop the territories in a way that is less dependent on the car, to develop alternatives to the car. There are employers who are a very interesting actor, to promote mobility and to encourage their employees to travel differently. And there are individuals, who are responsible for changing their habits, once again, when the environment allows it.

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS OR INCENTIVES FACING THE TERRITORIES?

Has this changed in recent years? Yes, when I started working on this issue about ten years ago, I regularly spoke with officials who told me, “Don’t worry, there’s no problem. And anyway, we have the electric vehicle”. Then, it changed over the years, hydrogen vehicle, even autonomous vehicle. In any case, the decision-makers had a ready-made technical solution. And the environmental issues that you mentioned at the beginning were not considered at all. The impact of mobility in terms of greenhouse gas emissions was not considered a problem. All this, I think, is evolving and today, we can really say that mobility is considered as an issue that communities must take on. That has changed.

However, I would say that there are still some issues that are a bit taboo when we talk about mobility, like the reduction of the place of the car. Today, the car is not at all dethroned in the countryside. On the other hand, what we see is that local authorities are trying to develop complementary offers to the car, but not alternative offers to the car. They are not trying to replace the car, but simply helping to move around when cars are not available. I think that we are a bit in the middle of the road, and we can still go a long way.

But once again, there are many things that encourage local authorities to act, and, it must be emphasized, many calls for projects with funding from the government, France Mobilités, ADEME. And that really incite communities to develop solutions, strategic documents, etc.

What innovations do you see emerging on your side?

I wouldn’t say that we are talking about innovations. We have to stop hoping that we will find a solution, a miracle innovation that will replace the car, which is an absolutely magical tool. Today, we have nothing that will replace it. We are going to talk about a collection of solutions. What will make move without cars? It’s going to be a package of solutions: public transport, carpooling, active modes, carsharing, if we think about the evolution of car use.

And I mentioned earlier that we also need to work on the demand for mobility, not to try to ensure our travel in other ways, but also to try to reduce our travel needs. This will be done, for example, by developing localities in which its different functions residential, employment, trade, etc., are not at such great distances that we are obliged to go from one to another in a motorized vehicule. Thinking of territories that are a little denser, a little more mixed, is also what will make it easier to get around on foot or by bicycle.

ARE THESE CHANGES ALSO PROMOTED BY THE ARRIVAL OF AN URBAN POPULATION IN THESE TERRITORIES?

There are two things I would like to comment on. The first thing is that, yes, when people arrive in a village or a medium-sized city and say: “We come from a big city, and we don’t want to come here and have to buy two cars and depend on cars”. When we have these demands, this pressure, which is exerted on elected officials, yes, obviously, it helps to move the lines. Just like all the work done by cycling associations, walking associations, etc., when they put pressure on elected officials so that things move. That’s the first thing. Yes, the arrival of new inhabitants with new expectations, new values, other cultures of mobility, helps to change lines.

I want to go back to the question of remote work though. Remote work has been seen as a miracle solution. We always hope for miracles. What is certain is that it is interesting in terms of rebalancing private life and personal life. And indeed, on certain days of the week, we no longer have to endure long, restrictive trips to work. However, we should not consider that remote work leads to a decrease in the distances travelled.

What we observe is a bit the opposite, that individuals who work remotely regularly and several days a week tend to take more trips and to travel a bigger distance overall. Because they travel less for work, but they have other leisure activities, which means that they travel anyway. What we observe is that they are also inhabitants who will, for example, take advantage of the possibility of working remotely to move away, to live in rural areas, in suburban areas, etc. And people who used to travel, for example, by public transport or by bicycle because they were close to their workplace, now become dependent on the car. In any case, we must also consider the rebound effects that this will have.

CAN THESE CHANGES SET IN MOTION A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE THAT ALLOWS AN ADAPTED RESPONSE TO THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY?

Can this start a virtuous circle? Yes. In any case, we can hope that all the crises we are observing, economic crisis for individuals, environmental crisis whose consequences we perceive full force, we can hope that it moves people. But I would say, “One can hope.” Because when you look at what’s happening, yes, things are happening, but we’re still very far from the mark. As I said, the car is not at all dethroned today. We are very far from the mark. We need to go much faster; we need to do much more. Except that when we look at the obstacles today, there are financial obstacles for the communities. Today, the communities have difficulties to finance these mobility projects. That is the first obstacle.

There are difficulties in terms of skills and engineering today in rural areas, whether on a communal or inter-communal scale, which is more relevant to work on mobility. But we don’t necessarily have the skills, this means that we don’t have mobility officers who can work on this issue over the long term. And that’s the difficulty. Today, we operate based on calls for tenders that last two or three years. And the big difficulty is to carry out policies on the long term because we need the long term for people to change their habits, which is something that happens over time.

And there is also a third difficulty, I said financial, I said engineering and skills. It is also, I think, that for some elected officials, the question is so enormous. They are simply asked to change a system that has prevailed for 60 years and that was considered satisfactory for 60 years. And they are being asked to change it completely. They are also being asked, in a certain sense, to oppose or impose constraints on their fellow citizens and voters. It is clear today that it is extremely difficult for these elected officials to move forward with this issue. In concrete terms, there is a real need for support for these loalities, on the part of the State, on the part of the regions and on the part of training institutes that will provide skills and bring a little confidence to these elected officials and decision-makers and tell them: “Yes, you can act at your level”.

Intervention of Anne-Lise Castel, Mobility Services Deployment Director:

How are Renault and Mobilize adapting to the diversification of mobility in rural and suburban areas?

Already, I think that rural mobility is evolving because, more and more, people are sensitive to the use of the automobile. On the one hand, cars are becoming a rare and expensive product. This is due to the crisis in components that we are experiencing at the moment, and also to the fact that people do not use their cars very often. There is a pendular movement when the citizens go from their place, their city, their house to their place of work, can put their vehicle down, or even take a public transport afterwards. And their vehicle is not used 90% of the time. It’s a means of transportation which is quite uneconomical when you acquire a vehicle. What we offer at Mobilize is not to acquire the vehicle, but to rent it for certain services and to pay only for its use.

In other words, we will share means of transport that are private means of transport in addition to public means of transport. And these are requests that we have more and more from cities, including small towns that wish to make car-sharing vehicles available to citizens. So that they can use car-sharing, for example, for commuting, or also to make more spontaneous trips during the day, without necessarily having to buy a vehicle. So, the user only pays for the use of his mobility, often in addition to public transport.

What proposals have you put in place with the territories to meet these challenges?

One example is the city of Nice, which is one of the major cities we have been working with for a few years now, with the Mobilize Share brand, which offers this car-sharing service that can be taken almost anywhere in the city. And in these cases, it is the local Renault dealer who owns the vehicles, who makes these vehicles available to the city of Nice on the public space. These vehicles on the public area have reserved spaces. This is the partnership that we can have with the city of Nice, for example.

And the citizens can take these vehicles, open them, thanks to a Mobilize Share application, and pay according to the use they have made of them. We also work with small towns in rural areas. I’m going to mention a small town called Luitré-Dompierre, which is in the west of France, and which came to us to have a few vehicles to offer to its citizens to facilitate their mobility. We are talking about a few vehicles, between 2 and 5 vehicles.

The same thing is happening – and it is working well – in Belgium, where the local dealer is becoming a player in local mobility and is offering this service to the municipality that wants it. The municipality, and here I am quoting the case of Belgium, wanted to use and pay part of the rent for these vehicles for its own needs. For its employees, so that the people working at the town hall can travel and work during the day. They book these vehicles for certain periods of time and the rest of the time, they are made available to citizens who can book their own vehicle with the application. And as I told you, they pay for the use, and put the vehicle back where they found it. This benefits everyone, both for the professional needs of the city hall employees and for the personal and professional needs of the citizens who live in these small towns.

What are the challenges of this new world of mobility and what is the role of Mobilize to meet these challenges?

Mobilize is really about making mobility accessible to everyone through car sharing, shared mobility, but also accessible, sustainable mobility since most of our vehicles today are electric vehicles. It is accessible through an application, but it is also accessible in terms of costs since users pay per use and do not own the vehicle. So the idea is really to move to another mode of mobility by proposing mobility that can be used as we wish, easily, and for which we only pay for use.

And this will be the last word. Thank you, Anne-Lise Castel and Marie Huyghe, for sharing your ideas and thoughts with us. Thank you for following us and see you soon for new episodes of Open World with Mobilize and Usbek & Rica.

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TOP PLAYER

shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively

For most, the term ‘shared mobility’ immediately brings to mind the practice of car-sharing but in reality, its scope and ambitions are much larger. From questions of inclusion, to the reduction of greenhouse gases, to rethinking the way we innovate, in this interview, future mobility and open innovation expert Judit Batayé explains how shared mobility will help build better transport in the future.

  • connectivity
  • design
  • energy transition
  • shared mobility

In light of social distancing measures introduced during the pandemic, the idea of sharing seems to have taken a backseat for now. What consequences has the pandemic had on shared mobility and carpooling?

As a member of the board of directors for Som Mobilitat (a vehicle-sharing cooperative based in Catalonia), I got to experience this crisis from the inside. We’d experienced tremendous growth over the last two years, and overnight, everything collapsed with the lockdown. Between March and May, we experienced a brutal 85% drop in reservations.

This period also taught us a lot. We of course increased health and safety measures by putting gel and masks in every shared vehicle, and by airing out each one between uses—but what this crisis also provided was a lesson in community solidarity. Very quickly, we made vehicles including the Renault ZOE available to health professionals so that they could travel to and from the hospital more easily.

We also gained important insight into general public feeling. Though lockdown was a difficult time, we noticed that the public nevertheless seemed to appreciate having a city that was less crowded and less polluted, as much in terms of sound and visual pollution as in terms of CO2 emissions.

This kind of clean city is something shared mobility can help make possible. We’re contributing to it with low-emission vehicles and optimised trips. We think this experience should motivate local councils to adopt shared mobility policies in the future.

judith bataye
Judit Batayé, future mobility expert

We tend to think of shared mobility in terms of connecting people — but could we say that the future of shared mobility depends more on successful data-sharing than on sharing between people?

Absolutely. Creating efficient shared transport is largely a question of how to handle data in order to make trips as fluid as possible. The goal is to arrive at a real MaaS (Mobility as a Service) model in which you can easily share information, book vehicles, or even calculate the best way to get from point A to point B (in terms of travel time or environmental impact), using a mix of public transport, private transport, and the other complementary services available. This is not a new model: it was invented in 2006 by a Finnish man named Sampo Hietanen, who describes it as “the Netflix of mobility.” But putting it in place can be complex sometimes due to the data-sharing that’s required to develop these kinds of services. I’d nevertheless say that there are many projects being developed that indicate things are going in the right direction.

Creating efficient shared transport is largely a question of how to handle data.

If I had to highlight one in particular, it would be the test project Renfe as a Service (RaaS), an A-Z mobility experience that allows you to access all Renfe services (Spain’s national railway company) alongside third-party services within a single app. By making multiple mobility services available, you make the user journey more efficient to and from train stations. By sharing data, we can create a truly integrated system that makes passenger mobility truly fluid. I think we have to move towards this model of data integration.

Your consulting firm Six-Ter champions the idea of a sharing economy that fosters inclusion using the principles of a social solidarity economy. Could you give us some examples of how shared mobility contributes to inclusion?

I think that the idea of inclusion underpins the sharing economy philosophy. Once again, there are many projects I could cite, but I’m a particular fan of what Taxistop is doing in Belgium by making social solidarity initiatives an integral part of their objectives, whether in terms of housing or mobility. I could also cite Mobicoop, a company that’s bringing transport services to the populations and places that need the most.

And in a larger sense, I think that technological advances like self-driving vehicles will also help contribute to greater inclusion. I still remember my 72-year-old mother’s reaction upon discovering Waymo and its self-driving car service. She was extremely enthusiastic about the possibilities a service like that could offer her.

By reducing the number of vehicles per person in service, the very nature of the sharing economy can help us reduce our environmental impact. What else is the shared mobility sector doing to take this even further?

To have real environmental impact, shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively, and involve all key players: cities, infrastructure, manufacturing… but also all the different sectors that are linked to mobility: delivery services, ports… Everything is interconnected. Shared mobility is a collective pursuit—and each link in the chain has to work towards sustainability. If, for example, infrastructure makers decide not to get involved, manufacturers won’t have enough reason to develop electric-powered services.

To have real environmental impact, shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively.

Returning to the example of delivery services, in Barcelona, the growing number of “Amazon-type” deliveries taking place is creating real congestion issues. So logistical solutions like building more pickup points can help reduce traffic and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Logistical optimisations like these are also a part of shared mobility.

It’s clear that working together is essential, and that such efforts will require a kind of collective coordination — if only to avoid ‘silo-thinking’ in which everyone works alone on their own solution. How do we encourage this?

I very much believe in mobility hubs. For me, they’re the best way to encourage open innovation that truly involves all parties. There are already several exciting projects like this underway—for example Railgroup, the most innovative cluster in my opinion, which is a perfect example of how to apply the principles of open innovation. In Europe, I could cite EIT Urban Mobility, which is made up of 40 members (cities, public transport providers, universities…) that work together to envision the future of mobility. Here in Barcelona, industrial actors come together at Cámara de Comerç de Barcelona to invent future mobility systems. And the Barcelona Global consortium — a group of the most important companies in the region who are working to promote a new model of mobility that’s more sustainable, safe, efficient, and inclusive. In their manifesto, they presented policy leaders with 15 concrete mobility solutions, from parking projects, to the use of big data, to an overhaul of public transport. So, I think that the future of mobility will have to be shared.

Not only in the sense of sharing between the final users, but in the sense of sharing the design and ideation process, too.

About Judit Batayé

  • Over 20 years of experience working on innovation projects in the mobility sector
  • Director of Six-Ter, a consulting firm focused on social innovation and sustainable mobility.
  • Member of OuiShare, advising on themes related to the future of sustainable mobility
  • Co-founder of COVIDWarriors, a non-profit organisation working to accelerate social, technological, and health-related projects that address the current crisis

 

Interview by Jérémy Lopes, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

 

Copyrights: Kaspars Upmanis via Unsplash, DR

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