Mobility with a buzz – e-mobility With foreseen reductions in the prices of electric vehicle batteries, rising fuel prices, improved battery ranges and the propagation of charging infrastructure, it is expected that electro mobility will become more attractive in future. Traditional mobility suppliers need to rethink their role and function within the sphere of electro-mobility. The adoption of e-mobility solutions will be received differently by generations with older generations becoming more conscious of health, sustainability and time-saving requirements while having the financial resources to support change and younger generations seeing the attraction while also being burdened by cost constraints. • E-charging will drive the need for new ‘third places’ concepts: hotspots combining living, working and relaxing spaces with docking stations for e-bikes and e-cars. • In the future, e-mobility could be self-sustaining and roads could have a dual function as a space for carrying vehicles and a means of circular energy transfer between e-vehicles and the smart grid. • E-mobility will decentralise and fragment the energy supplier network. • As prices for electric vehicle batteries drop, the overall purchase price for electric vehicles will decrease. • Electro-mobility is driving the mobility concepts for the urbanised 21st century. “Since in an urban habitat electric vehicles cannot be beaten in effectiveness, electro-mobility is driving the mobility concepts for the urbanized 21st century” The development of e-mobility is primarily taking place in industrial and industrialising nations. In 2012, the USA owned 38% of the global electric car stock, Japan 24%, the EU 11% and China 6%. As prices for electric vehicle batteries drop, the overall purchase price for electric vehicles will decrease. Together with rising fuel prices, improved battery ranges and growing charging infrastructure, electro-mobility will become more attractive. The number of electric cars is expected to grow from 20 to 30 million by 2030 to around 25 to 50 million vehicles by 2050 due to technological developments. New business opportunities Car manufacturers, railways, public transport, airlines and other suppliers of traditional mobility need to rethink their role and function within the mobility grid. In the slipstream of e-mobility, products and services will need to be created to support and enhance connected e-driving, not in the least creation and use of an intelligent charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and new billing models. New technologies stir up the market to create new opportunities and approaches for related industries. New players will emerge, establishing themselves in a cross-innovations market. New e-lifestyles With an electric vehicle, a quick stop at a service station is a thing of the past. Charging an e-driven motor happens while the vehicle is parked: overnight at home, or while the driver is working or enjoying leisure time. E-charging will drive the need for new ‘third places’-concepts: hotspots that combine living, working and relaxing spaces with docking stations for e-bikes and e-cars. Everyone is an energy supplier E-mobility will shift the energy provider landscape profoundly, decentralising it into a network of many small energy suppliers: homeowners with solar panels, farmers with a biogas plant or companies with small, private wind turbines. Current users will supply energy to a power grid that is increasingly intelligent, the so-called smart grid. Smart grids and energy highways In the future e-mobility could be completely self-sustaining: we could use roads as energy highways. E-vehicles charge the smart grid, with batteries serving as a buffer, and overcapacity from the smart grid is redirected into the car, charging the battery. Thus, electric cars trigger the birth of another logic concerning energy and mobility. The missing mobility link Especially the e-bike will change the way people address their daily individual transport. Electric bikes extend the urban biking radius and function as the preferred mobility mode – especially in regions with underdeveloped infrastructure. It allows overcoming long distances, regardless of a sparse infrastructure of public transport. The generational response to E-mobility Millennials will respond with mixed feelings. They are natural born supporters of electronics and electric mobility is an attractive novel way of transportation, but the prices are too high (even for e-bikes). Prime Busters will be pro, but concerned about the (still) high prices of e-cars; regarding e-bikes, the interest grows for this time-starved and traffic-jam-bullied generation: e-bikes – often sponsored by their employer and the tax authorities – are speeding up the commuting (plus, there is less need for a shower at work, since electric biking doesn’t make you break a sweat). Babyboomers will be pro as well. Front-end Boomers are becoming aware of the need for “LOHAS” (a lifestyle of health (self) and sustainability (environment). E-mobility will provide a fair share in solving (urban and global) environmental and health problems. Master Boomers: pro – forced by their progressing age, Back-end Boomers are (even more) conscious of the need for “LOHAS” (lifestyles of health and sustainability). Master Boomers have the time to contemplate the consequences of their ‘fossil fuel lifestyle’ of the last decades. The declining physical condition and vitality of Master Boomers are making them adopt/buy e-bikes at a rapid rate. BabyBoomers and Masters have more (easily access to) financial resources to adopt e-mobility.