#sustainable #mobility

Rotterdam, Parkland

I recently was browsing on LinkedIn, searching companies within innovator products and vision, and I did find many, and that is good news! One of them (and sorry, I will not reveal the name) was a Job opening, and on company's description had the following:

"....... global manufacturer of electric vehicle charging stations ....., .....drives sustainable mobility by bringing the leading electric vehicle charging solutions to the world. Just like the automobile replaced the horse and carriage, so will electric vehicles replace combustion-based automobiles. A charging point at every parking spot, an Electric Vehicle for every driver."

My search was indeed "sustainable mobility," but I'm starting to see "mobility" becoming a buzzword!

Are we not creating another problem in our cities? Look at our houses; there are chargers and cables all over the living room, if only in some of the rooms. In Europe, we start to see the same on our City sidewalks. My daughter, 7 years ago, once walking by my side to school, pointed out to a car and told me: “take a look, dad, that car works like my iPad.” Yes, it was an electric car, charging in the parking spot. And with 5 years old, her concern was her daily issue, running out of battery! "Dad, the owner left his car charged and went walking, so next time, he has enough charge!".

On my way home - Rotterdam

Of course, I did explain to her how good that type of solution is and that it will pollute less, and will be good for us since we will have lower pollution! But that it's another discussion!

My question now is more, when will we continue adding electric chargers on our sidewalks? Someone definitely sees the issue, but I’m not seeing someone acting and stopping this madness. Can you imagine if every city parking spot has an electric charger? It's not difficult to see that this business model is wrong, and once again, the developed countries are showing and sending a wrong unsustainable model to under-developing countries.

Imagine cities like São Paulo - Brazil, Mumbai, Delhi in India, etc., replicating this business model as mobility sustainable? It will not take long until Al Gore and Leonardo de Caprio talk about the issue of all the Electric Power required to feed these cities, but even worse will be having those cities full of electric cables on the streets dropping from the electrical holder poles.

Shouldn’t electric vehicle charging be installed on the building parking spots? Shouldn’t the cities start to work with landlords to see how the charging areas can be installed in the buildings instead of city sidewalks? It's just an idea, even though I'm not a believer! Should the power grids start working with all stakeholders to agree on a nutshell solution instead of what we are doing in just supplying plugs and cables?

Imagine having a few car parks and more city parks.

My message is:

The main reason I’m addressing this to you, it's that we should stop associating electric cars with "sustainable mobility" developing countries tend to copy our models. Just later, we rush to tell them they cannot do that! The second reason is that studies suggest that today's 55.3% of the world population lives in cities, and in the future, it will reach 68% in the following decades. Proper mobility will be the key to sustainability; cars are not the mobility solution. Sooner than later, the electric charges on the city sidewalks must be removed.

From the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of UN:

From UN - DESA Report