Mobility switches entirely to electric cars to achieve carbon neutrality
09.03.2020
You and the environment can rejoice: All Mobility vehicles will be powered by emission-free electric drive systems by 2030 at the latest. The cooperative will also become climate-neutral by 2040. The biggest hurdle is the electric charging infrastructure.
Sustainability is deeply rooted in Mobility’s DNA: According to figures from Interface, car sharing eliminates 35’500 private cars on Swiss roads and tens of thousands of tonnes of CO every year2. Mobility is now setting a new, loud exclamation mark in terms of climate protection: “Our long-term goal is to become completely climate-neutral as a company,” announces Managing Director Roland Lötscher. In order to achieve this, the entire Mobility fleet will be electrified within ten years, so all cars will be emission-free during use. This is will be quite some feat: after all, the company currently offers 130 vehicles that run on electricity and 100 on biogas.
«“We want to do our best to protect the environment and ensure the world is worth living in for future generations.»Roland Lötscher, Managing Director of Mobility
The challenge of the charging infrastructure
The biggest obstacle for Mobility to overcome is the charging infrastructure for supplying its e-cars with electricity from renewable sources. It is expensive and complex to build. “But the main problem is that we only rent our parking spaces – we don't own them. This means we can only achieve electrification in collaboration with others,” says Lötscher, adding that the company is doing everything it can to come up with solutions. “We see these primarily in partnerships.” They are open to a wide range of ideas and confident that they will soon be able to initiate the first projects. The cooperative also hopes manufacturers will simplify and standardise charging processes and that the public sector will increasingly provide funding for the charging infrastructure.
Carbon neutrality by 2040
While Mobility aims to be emission-free (well to wheel) by 2030, the goal for 2040 is carbon neutrality (life cycle assessment): this not only includes how the vehicles are powered but covers the entire range of emissions generated by the cooperative and the products it uses. Examples include commuting by employees, suppliers’ carbon footprint, and the grey energy generated in the manufacture of vehicles and their batteries. After 2040, the company even has the vision of retroactively offsetting emissions generated in the past (negative emissions).
Trips Offset CO2 via “Cause We Care”
Mobility is stepping up its long-standing partnership with the climate foundation Myclimate in order to have an independent monitoring body for its sustainability measures and an expert partner at its side. This is how the car sharing company makes Myclimate initiative “Cause We Care” . Customers can continue to use these to voluntarily make their journeys CO2-compensate, but now also support Mobility in the rapid development of sustainable mobility.