The role E-Mobility will play in smarter cities.

Reasons for action

These days, we can no longer ignore the consequences of global warming. As we speak, several European cities are facing air pollution problems in some parts of their city centres. That’s why people are encouraged to use public transport, to walk or cycle, and are sometimes being advised not to use their chimneys under certain weather conditions.

Inspiring projects

We travel to Stuttgart, the leading location in automobile industry and research and development in Europe. While doing so, Stuttgart is a showcase region for e-mobility. There are living over 2.7 million inhabitants in the main region of Stuttgart, which caused air pollution problems in some parts of the city centre. While Europe limits fine dust and Germany faces EU treaty violation proceedings, it’s time to take action. That’s why Stuttgart developed an action plan for sustainable mobility:

• Incentive 1: Car and bike sharing
• Incentive 2: Free parking for clean cars
• Incentive 3: Promoting e-mobility
• Incentive 4: Incentives for clean transports in city logistics
• Incentive 5: Changing mobility within the city administration
• Incentive 6: Electric Taxi Action Plan
  

By installing these incentives, Stuttgart is making e-mobility and sustainability more attractive - also financially -, which can be a main trigger for its citizens to rethink their transportation modes.

We leave Stuttgart and travel to Koprivnica, where another inspiring and innovative case is being installed. With its 30.894 residents, Koprivnica has also been facing the effects of global warming. Because of this phenomenon, five local partners teamed up, and decided it was time to tackle some issues the city had to deal with. The government took care of the development and implementation of a sustainable urban mobility plan. They inserted a zero CO² university campus, and elaborated the car sharing system of electric vehicles. With 2 hybrid vehicles, 5 fast EV chargers, 6 E-cars, 200 potential users and a huge replication potential their E-car sharing scheme will be a huge success. This is just the beginning of a very promising vision on sustainability and e-mobility!

Infrastructure

Modern expressways and electric travel programs, like the modern electric train, have been developed in some smart cities. They make transportation of goods and citizens both easier and safe, for traffic and for drivers. Improved roads contribute to the strengthening of the cities’ integration into different regions and facilitate access to new markets, providing better connections at a lower cost. For cities it’s an everyday job to take electromobility further and include e-mobility in the urban planning processes. For example, combining parking and charging in public parking spaces. Further, new city quarters shall be equipped with electric car-sharing, pedelecs, etc. But all of these concepts need time, commitment and money.

Conclusion

Though structuring a city needs a strategy to interconnect all proposals centred to the consecution of common goals - tailored to the needs of the citizenship and improving life quality -, this has been very hard to achieve. The smart city evolves with the environment, and develops projects that give an efficient and sustainable response to the needs of its citizens, equally smart, who use the favour of the new technologies and the design of the city.