Mobility media releases 2021

Mobility has spent the past year trialling the mobility of the future on Zurich’s Europaallee. Ten e-cars from a variety of manufacturers are available for hire – and are especially popular with younger car sharers: electric vehicles have taken a leap forward and are now as well utilised as fossil fuel cars. And range anxiety is a thing of the past. 

Mobility’s goal is to be climate friendly and fully electric by no later than 2030. In order to reach this target, the car sharing provider is looking to rapidly expand its charging network and to address the needs of its customers. A pilot project involving ten e-cars at Zurich’s main railway station has been running for a year – backed up by surveys and analyses. The results are positive: at Europaallee, capacity utilisation of the e-cars is on a par with that of conventional cars, unlike recent years when they have been a third less popular. “There’s keen interest in sustainable mobility and trying new things,” confirms Mobility Managing Director Roland Lötscher. “It’s motivating us to make our fleet all-electric as quickly as possible.” Moreover, two thirds of all users are under 39. “That’s exactly what we were hoping for: getting young people excited about e-sharing,” says Lötscher. Around half of all Mobility customers make a point of coming to its e-cars stationed in Europaallee – even if locations offering fossil-fuelled vehicles are closer. 

Adequacy of range
Mobility’s pilot station shows that the range offered by the latest e-cars is plenty for car sharing purposes: firstly, because modern electric vehicles can travel several hundred kilometres on a single charge, and secondly, because Mobility takes into account the time needed to recharge between reservations. Charge levels are over 80% at the start of nine out of ten hires. Only a handful of customers find themselves having to recharge the battery, which can be done free of charge at the rapid charging points provided by Mobility partner GOFAST.

Need for clear instructions
E-drivers want more information about the various e-models, especially concerning the different charging procedures. Mobility has responded by issuing brief guides that are available online as well as physically in the vehicles. For Roland Lötscher, one thing is clear: “The switch to electromobility will succeed only if we take people with us on the journey; continuously providing information is part of that. It involves turning reluctance and anxiety into enthusiasm.”

E-expansion making progress
In order to jump-start its e-charging infrastructure, Mobility is working with the Swiss Federal Railways, from which it rents e-parking spaces at railway stations. The company is also installing its own charging points. At present, Mobility operates 180 e-cars, a figure due to rise to 450 in 2023 and to encompass the entire fleet of over 3’000 vehicles by 2030. 

ABOUT MOBILITY
Mobility offers its 245’000 customers throughout Switzerland 2’950 vehicles at 1’540 locations. The cooperative provides return car-sharing across Switzerland, One-Way cars for open-jaw trips between cities and airports, and the Mobility-Go free-floating scheme in Basel. The sharing system is simple, affordable, fully automated, available around the clock, self-service and highly sustainable thanks to state-of-the-art technology. It adds up to each Mobility car replacing 11 privately owned vehicles.

RELEVANT IMAGE AND VIDEO MATERIAL
Download free image and video material: https://www.mobility.ch/bildarchiv-alternative-antriebe 

CONTACT MOBILITY
Sybille Theiler, Deputy Media Spokesperson
041 248 25 93, presse(at)mobility.ch

Significant mobility providers have been working closely together on an aim to promote the use of self-driving vehicles in Switzerland. In this context, new solutions can be offered, such as servicing remote areas and on-demand services. To this end, the partners have founded the Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility (SAAM), for the coordination of corresponding projects in Switzerland and ensuring the transfer of know-how. The goal is for Switzerland to become a pioneer country for efficient and automated mobility.

Since the first autonomous shuttles drove through Sion, Switzerland has seen a number of other projects with self-driving vehicles. Now, the participating transport companies and mobility providers want to join forces and have founded the Swiss Association for Autonomous Mobility (SAAM) for this purpose. SAAM aims to shape the mobility of tomorrow, in particular by building a network, sharing research and development results in Switzerland and promoting selected innovative ideas in the mobility sector. The ambition of SAAM is to make a sustainable contribution in passenger and future goods mobility. Experts expect that by 2025 the legal requirements for automated driving will be met in Switzerland. It is therefore important to combine the strengths of the mobility industry for collaboration as new mobility solutions are explored. SAAM wants Switzerland to become a pioneer country in autonomous mobility.

Broad-based sponsorship
The association currently consists of the Automobile Club of Switzerland (ACS), ASTAG Swiss Commercial Vehicle Association, Basler Verkehrs-Betriebe, BERNMOBIL, Bestmile, Transports publics fribourgeois (TPF), PostBus, Swiss Transit Lab, SwissMoves, Touring Club Suisse (TCS), Transports publics genevois (TPG), Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich, Zugerland Verkehrsbetriebe, AMAG, auto-schweiz, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Dynamic Test Center (DTC), EPFL, HES-SO Valais, Mobility Lab Sion, Mobility and others. Further partners are welcome to join the association in order to create an open platform for representatives from business, research, education, authorities and the technology sector. SAAM aims to become the national and international contact for the topic of self-driving vehicles and automated driving for Switzerland as a business location.

Thierry Burkart, Member of the Council of States and President of ASTAG, will act as president of the association together with the board members Martina Müggler, Head of Strategy & Innovation PostBus, Anne Mellano, Co-Founder Bestmile, Marino Grisanti, Head of Planning TPF and Jürg Wittwer, General Director TCS, to advance the interests for joint mobility solutions. Managing director of SAAM is Martin Neubauer, overall project manager for autonomous driving at PostBus.
 

LINK WEBSITE
www.swissaam.ch

MEDIA CONTACT
Ben Küchler, +41 58 341 21 35, info(at)swissaam.ch

OFFICE CONTACT
Martin Neubauer, +41 76 429 26 54, martin.neubauer(at)swissaam.ch

Mobility intends to electrify all of its 3’000 cars. This requires a massive expansion of the e-charging infrastructure. The cooperative is driving this forward in collaboration with its new partners Juice Technology, EVTEC and Helion. The first 300 e-charging stations should be in use in three years’ time at the latest.

Mobility’s goal is to be completely electric and emission-free by no later than 2030. The greatest hurdle to overcome here is setting up a network of e-charging stations. With Juice Technology, EVTEC and Helion, the car-sharing provider is now bringing three partners on board with whom it intends to drive forward the expansion. By 2023, the number of charging stations to be available throughout Switzerland will be “at least” 300, as Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher is keen to emphasise: “We want as many charging stations as possible, as quickly as possible. The future belongs to e-mobility – and we want to lead the way.” Since Mobility does not own its parking spaces but rents them, the key factor will be whether and when the site owners will be prepared go along with electrification. Lötscher is confident: “I think most site owners will recognise the signs of the times and take advantage of our offer.” This offer consists of the site owner providing the grid connection while Mobility installs its own charging solution. This will guarantee a uniform charging process for customers.

Switzerland-based suppliers
Mobility selected its three new business partners through a call for tenders. Juice Technology AG (Cham) will be supplying AC charging stations, EVTEC AG (Kriens) will be providing the DC charging stations and Helion (Zurich) will take care of the electrical expansion. At the same time, Mobility is continuing its cooperation with SBB, which is electrifying Mobility stations at railway stations. All Mobility e-cars run on electricity from 100% renewable sources.

New: charging en route
Modern e-cars such as those provided by Mobility are capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres. However, many users are still afraid of the range being insufficient. To alleviate these fears and provide for the worst-case scenario, Mobility will be putting new charging cards from the fast-charging provider GOFAST in all its electric cars in the course of April 2021. They can be used at around 60 stations currently operated by provider so as to enable recharging en route.

IMAGES
Freely downloadable image material: www.mobility.ch/image-archive

CONTACT
Mobility: Patrick Eigenmann, Head of Corporate Communications, telephone 041 248 21 11, p.eigenmann(at)mobility.ch

EVTEC: Dominik Mock, Head of Sales & Aftersales, Tel. 041 280 88 38, d.mock(at)evtec.ch

Juice Technology: Daniela Märkl, Head of Communication, Tel. 041 510 02 19, daniela.maerkl(at)juice-technology.com

Helion: Renato Mitra, Head of Marketing, Tel. 076 357 49 45, renato.mitra(at)helion.ch

GOFAST: Olivier Tezgören, Head of Corporate Communications, Tel. +41 79 247 39 01, o.tezgoeren(at)gofast.swiss

Increasing numbers of customer, strong summer months and efficient cost management: Mobility was able to make up for the booking slump in the spring lockdown, finishing the corona year of 2020 in the black. The future is geared towards electromobility.

Mobility is attracting steadily increasing numbers of customers: 245’000 people now use the red car sharing vehicles – 21,000 or 9% more than in the previous year. Mobility is seeing especially strong growth in towns and cities. Here, one in two households no longer owns a private car, so occasional trips are increasingly made with Mobility. The corona-related slump in bookings during the spring lockdown, not least for business trips, was offset by strong summer months, since many people in Switzerland spent their vacations in their home country. In addition, the company continuously optimised its costs (in areas such as car insurance premiums, leasing expenses, administrative costs and depreciation). The bottom line for Mobility in 2020 was a profit of CHF 2.7 million (+CHF 0.9 million as compared to the previous year). CEO Roland Lötscher sees this positively: “This is a good result in difficult times. It encourages us to continue pursuing our long-term goals. One of our aims in particular is to convert our fleet entirely to electric mobility, thereby taking on pioneering role in Switzerland.”

Covid-19: slump in bookings followed by rapid stabilisation
During the corona lockdown of spring 2020, Mobility bookings plummeted by about half, reflected in a reduction of 4.2% in annual turnover (CHF 75.6 million). Demand subsequently recovered swiftly, however: people continued to travel less, but when they did, they increasingly made use of car sharing rather than public transport. Providing there are no more rigid lockdowns in 2021, the hope is that private customer usage figures will be only slightly below their usual level. In the business sector the effects of Covid-19 will be felt for longer, however: since many work from home, the employees of the 5’000 companies that have opted for car sharing are on the road significantly less than usual.

Electric cars only in the future
Mobility’s goal is to offer solely electrically powered vehicles by 2030 at the latest. The biggest challenge here: installing a charging infrastructure at its 1’540 stations throughout Switzerland. This is a project Mobility is tackling in collaboration with its partners. The company also aims to achieve climate-neutrality by 2040 – including all the company’s emissions and the products used (life cycle assessment).

IMAGES
Freely downloadable image material: www.mobility.ch/image-archive

CONTACT
Patrick Eigenmann, Head of Corporate Communications, telephone 041 248 21 11, p.eigenmann(at)mobility.ch

Practice driving with Mobility is booming: 22’000 learner drivers have prepared for their driving test using the red car-sharing vehicles. This is especially true in cities – where fewer and fewer people now have a car of their own. As of recently, driving is now permitted from the age of 17.

Learner rides with parents or acquaintances are an ideal way of gaining privately organised experience behind the wheel. But far from everyone is able to take advantage of this: in the big cities, half of all households no longer own a car. The leader in terms of non-car-owning households is Bern at 56.8%, followed by Zurich (52.8%), Basel (52.1%), Lausanne (46.3%), Lucerne (44%) and Geneva (40.9%).
Mobility has filled this gap for seven years now: learner drivers can use car-sharing vehicles to prepare for their driving test. “The response has been excellent,” says Media Officer Patrick Eigenmann. “22’000 people have taken up our learner driver subscription in Switzerland. And we think this is just the beginning,” says Eigenmann. With public transport in urban areas becoming increasingly well developed, more and more people are opting not to spend money on a car of their own. This is a trend that is reflected in Mobility’s learner driver figures: a third of all subscription holders come from the canton of Zurich, 15% from Bern, 8% each from Geneva and Vaud, and 7% from Basel – i.e. cantons with large cities.

Damage is rare – driving from age 17 now permitted
The Mobility learner driver subscription is valid for six months. It includes third-party, comprehensive and passenger insurance as well as a liability reduction that minimises financial damage. Interesting enough, however, insurance claims are no more frequent among learner drivers than in connection with other Mobility services: beginners are generally careful and attentive on the road, so vehicle damage is rare – all the more so given that an authorised accompanying person has to be in the car on every trip. As such, Mobility welcomes the new regulation in force since the beginning of the year that allows 17-year-olds to get behind the wheel of a learner vehicle to gain driving experience.

IMAGES
Freely downloadable image material: www.mobility.ch/image-archive

CONTACT
Patrick Eigenmann, Head of Corporate Communications, telephone 041 248 21 11, p.eigenmann(at)mobility.ch