Mobility In Motion
This graph shows Tesla's US market share has surpassed that of Merc, Beemer, Audi and Lexus in the compact, mid-sized, premium sedan segment. That was last year (June 2018). This year (June 2019), sales of Tesla is reported to be greater than the combined sales of Merc, Beemer, Audi and Lexus in that segment. The switch to greener mobility may be quietly underway:
- Solaris - Receives 250 electric bus order from Milan and 150 from Warsaw
- Heuliez, Bollore and Alstom - Receives 800 electric bus order from Paris
- VanHool - Gets order for 20 long-distance, hydrogen fuel cell buses from NL
- Mobis - To build $322m EV component factory
- SPAR - Retail chain enters EV charging like Walmart doing so
- Akasol - To build battery plant in Detroit centre of internal combustion
- PSA - Peugeot-Citroën-Opel to produce batteries in SK and ES
- ParkEasy - BMW introduces app reserved charging bays at shopping malls
- Google - Starts self-driving car production in Detroit mid-2019
Mobility Phases
Here's how new mobility might play out:
- 1. Current EVs' designs are legacy-based because these vanguard EVs must work within existing road regulations, practices, driving skills and habits. It starts from the premium segment because the 'hip upper middle class' has the money and mindset to fund EV development. From the premium segment, EVs may move to super premium, followed by the budget segment.
- 2.1. The next step is perhaps to design EVs from ground up, not electrified versions of legacy cars. It is not very green to haul a single occupant 1,500 kg car (the weight of 20 adults) around town, neither to manufacture (including mining lithium, cobalt and nickel) nor to operate (including demands on the electricity grid).
- 2.2 The above phase could come in three ways: a) hardware-based: much lighter 1-3 seater, bike or trike-like vehicles starting with the budget segment b) software-based: integrated (cars, bikes, mass transit) shared mobility c) both: autonomous vehicles.
- 3. The third step could be the design or retrofit of cities based on new mobility. It might mean the freeing of vast expenses of asphalt and concrete, to be repurposed for greenery, parks, urban farms, jungles, walkways, cycle lanes, solar panels and other uses. Opportunities aplenty in new mobility.