Sustainable and connected. If there are two words that define the mobility of the future, it is these. At least, according to what was discussed and commented this week in Madrid during the third edition of the Global Mobility Call (GMC). Drones, vertiports, service stations, electric bicycle sharing, hydrogen and biofuel production projects and programs to adapt civil infrastructure (such as ports or roads) to climate change shared space at the Ifema exhibition centre. A total of 104 exhibitors, between organizations (heavyweights such as WWF, the UN Global Compact, the World Road Association or the International Energy Agency), companies and public administrations took the pulse of the transformation process that mobility is experiencing, the role of electrification and their challenges and degree of implementation by country, new biofuels and green molecules such as hydrogen, multimodality of transport or the digitalization of road infrastructure.
But to change “we must first understand what situation we are in,” as commented Lars Hoffman, expert mobility journalist at Todos Eléctricos and speaker, who served as moderator at one of the tables scheduled during the fair: “Lessons learned in Europe, perspective of the future. During his presentation he also recalled that “there are two transitions that move in parallel: the electric transition and the mobility transition.” Two transformations to which a digital layer is also added with the massive incorporation of data: “Cars will be like telephones, they will have all kinds of sensors and will communicate with the road,” said one of the speakers, Sampo Hietanen, owner from Aspectu Oy, who also spoke about another trend in the sector: shared mobility, a solution that is gaining ground in a world in which “cars account for 20% of household spending and are used 4% of the time.” he commented.
Maya Ben Dror, co-founder of the company Complexchaos, lived in China for more than a decade and explained part of the success of electric mobility in this country: «In 2012 I was already driving an electric car that recharged in 20 minutes and paid easily, just like I did it for my cell phone service. China soon understood that moving is a basic right and the technological change that was ahead and left fossil fuels behind. “They started with small pilots in cities that have been expanding in a coordinated manner.”
The right and freedom to move was one of the most repeated ideas during the debate and a key point, said the speakers, to understand 21st century mobility. It is necessary to put the user and their needs at the center of mobility. Europe is a great promoter of electric mobility (although it is still far from China, the world leader in electrification), but it also seeks to develop the economy of hydrogen as a fuel and has objectives for the gradual incorporation of second generation biofuels –made, for example, from pruning remains– in the tanks of current combustion cars. Pierre-Yves Sachet, executive vice president of Mobility & New Commerce at Moeve (until a few weeks ago Cepsa), pointed out that “it is important to help the car user and, in the case of electric cars, this happens in Spain by adding ultra-fast charging points . There is still a fear today of being stranded with the car without a battery and without being able to charge it and this is resolved with more networks and more charging hubs. Three years ago the first Global Mobility Call was held and, then, we only talked about complexity and nothing was happening. Now, there are signs for optimism, although not everything is solved,” he warns. For Sachet it is clear that the moment we are in and the future have something in common: that “the demand is not going to be homogeneous.” That is, each customer will need a different fuel depending on whether they are an individual or a long-distance transporter and the use they make of their vehicle. “This is the starting point,” Sachet said.
The concept of a new service station that Moeve has just presented is framed under this prism. Stations designed as a hub where the user can find what they need depending on the car they have. «What we are going to have is a multi-energy offer. A carrier may need ultra-fast electric charging for trucks. We are talking about 300-500 kilowatts or one MW of power, which are enormous powers. Obviously, for the light vehicle, electric charging is going to be essential but drivers must be helped. Therefore, we want to position ourselves as a leader of the ultra-fast charging, that equal to or greater than 150 kW, which corresponds to a charge of 80% of the battery in 20 minutes. You will find these chargers at our stations. But, in addition, you will have these chargers in the form of hubs, in most cases, where there is more than one ultra-fast charging point, so that there is no frustration when it comes to finding a point that does not work or avoiding queues like we have seen in some recent cases,” he predicts. With this they want to guarantee that “that fear of not finding a charger that works disappears”, while offering the electric car customer a canopy where they can be calm and sheltered from the sun or rain and different spaces in which they can rest or spend some time. such as Moeve Market or R’spiro’s restaurant services or the group’s food halls. The charging points are also designed to facilitate payment (one of the big complaints of electric car drivers). “This customer will be able to pay with all their applications, ours or those on the market,” says Sachet.
Paradigm shift
For the rest of the drivers who do not travel by pure electric “we are going to serve HVO diesel (synthetic diesel derived from used oil), “which we already market more dedicated to the world of heavy transport.” In the future, it is anticipated that hydrogen could also be used in one of its forms (gaseous or liquid), which are two very different types of consumption. «We are agnostic regarding technology. What we want is to satisfy customer demand wherever it is,” commented the Moeve manager.
The multi-energy company is also carrying out the transformation of the 1,800 service stations it operates in Spain and Portugal, at the same time as presenting its new corporate image. With this change it wants to reflect to society its commitment to the energy transition that began in 2022 with its Positive Motion program.
This business turn has led them to divest 70% of its total oil business. Without a doubt, that has been his greatest milestone in these two years, although not the only one. Today they distribute SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) in seven airports and are investing both in green hydrogen production technology with the intention of becoming European leaders and in manufacturing second generation biofuels. The total planned investment until 2030 in these green molecules is between 7,000 and 8,000 million euros. «More than 50% of our profit will come from renewable solutions in 2030, in just six years. In 2022 we announced the group’s new strategy designed to pivot towards a leading position in the energy transition through significant investments in green molecules and electric mobility, and now was the time to announce the change because we have already reached important milestones that demonstrate that we are doing the right thing. that we announced,” concludes Sachet.