Mobility media releases 2022

As of December this year, the car sharing specialist Mobility has 300 electric cars in operation and is therefore on course to reach its target. The company is aiming to replace its entire fleet with electric powered vehicles by 2030 – a major undertaking for all involved. 

Mobility Cooperative is celebrating an important milestone this week. In Thun, at the Bahnhof/Parkhaus City Süd station, its 300th electric car, complete with charging point, was brought into service. With this, one in ten of the car sharing company’s vehicles now run purely on electricity. This number is only set to increase; Mobility is aiming to power its entire fleet of cars – currently 3000-strong – with electricity by 2030. In doing so, the cooperative will be able to fulfil its company purpose with regard to sustainability as set out in its Articles of Association.  
As Head of Network Thomas Schmid, explains, the electric cars are being very well received by customers: “Our customers have discarded their initial reservations. At practically all stations where electric as well as fossil fuel powered vehicles are located, the electric vehicles are used far more frequently”. 

Rented parking spaces pose a challenge
For Mobility, the transition to all electric vehicles is not without its challenges. Its parking spaces, roughly 3000 across Switzerland, are rented, meaning it will take many conversations and negotiations before power connections can be installed at every location. Mobility supplies the charging points for such operations. For locations at which it is technically impossible to supply electricity to the parking space, alternative locations will be sourced. Roland Lötscher, CEO of Mobility, says: “We feel that all our partners are motivated to contribute to the transition to sustainable, electric power. For this reason, I am confident that we will reach our target”. According to Lötscher, the next few years will require a considerable push from all sides. “Those in government are also responsible; they need to ensure the necessary frameworks are in place”. 

Market opportunity for grid-serving charging
As part of its electrification mission, Mobility is currently taking part in the recently launched pilot project V2X Suisse and testing the potential for bidirectional charging. The experiment involves 50 cars that are not only able to run from electricity, but also feed it back into the grid. These power banks on wheels could also allow electricity providers to balance out network fluctuations and mitigate shortages in the future. It is likely the first time that a test of vehicle-to-grid charging has spanned an entire country. For Mobility, the trial will reveal whether the company is able to share energy as well as cars in the future. The results are expected over the course of next year.

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

The Mobility cooperative is modernizing its offers and prices. The company is responding to a growing community demand by offering discounts on longer journeys and multi-day excursions. Young people also benefit from a new special offer.

The car sharing company Mobility has overhauled its offers and prices to meet the needs of its 240,000-plus customers and make their experience easier. It also aims to convince many more people in Switzerland to use carsharing. Among other things, Mobility is offering discounts in the form of day packages on longer journeys. This will make one- or several-day excursions comparable in price to hiring a car, thus meeting an increasingly popular customer requirement. Cooperative members (mobilityMEMBER) also receive a 20 percent discount on reservations of 72 hours or more, three times a year. The average price of short journeys will be increased, though only slightly. Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher says: "Car sharing is used for many purposes - from shopping trips to weekend excursions. For users, therefore, the overall package has to be right, and we have significantly improved this. I am convinced: with the new offers, we are positioning car sharing even more strongly as a sustainable and inexpensive alternative to private cars."

Under 28s drive on the best terms
Mobility is paying particular attention to young users with its special mobilityYOUNG offer. For people under 28, the monthly subscription costs are waived after a one-time registration fee. And they can drive at the best terms. The aim is to make it easier for young people to enter the world of car sharing. Roland Lötscher says: "We want to convince young people of the benefits of car sharing even before they buy their first car, but we are aware that this group is price-sensitive. It fits well with our cooperative values if we accommodate them and hopefully gain loyal users." 
What else will be changing? The annual subscription will become a monthly subscription (mobilityPLUS), which offers more flexibility. In addition, the costs for individual reservations will be billed directly after the trip in the future. What remains the same is the dense network of around 3,000 vehicles in Switzerland, almost 300 of which are already electrically powered. In larger cities, the nearest Mobility station is only a five-minute walk away.  

The new offers and price structures apply immediately to new customers. Existing customers will be informed by Mobility about the benefits and the respective switching options in the next few weeks. For now, those who prefer to can continue using the current offers and rates.  

Calculation examples (price differences compared to previous offers):

• Combi category, 10 hours, 250 kilometers: Minus between CHF 7 and 17 (depending on offer).
• Economy category, 20 hours, 120 kilometers: Minus between CHF 31 and 41 
• Budget category, 3 hours, 14 kilometers: Plus CHF 0.70

(Examples do not apply to mobilityEASY - previously Click&Drive)
 

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

Electric vehicles have the potential to fill gaps in the power supply by feeding electricity back into the grid. The underlying bidirectional technology is being tested in real-life conditions for the first time. The green light for the project V2X Suisse under the direction of Mobility was given this morning in Bern.

The Swiss pilot project V2X Suisse was officially launched this morning at Bahnhof Parking in Bern, the city’s biggest Mobility station. Over the course of a year, research will now be conducted into how electric cars can be used as storage units in future so as to close the gaps in the power supply and increase grid stability. 

Seven companies are involved in the project, with the car-sharing company Mobility taking the lead and making 50 Honda e available at 40 stations throughout Switzerland. These electric vehicles will feed electricity from their batteries back into the grid when they are not being driven. It is the first large-scale test using bidirectionally charging serial-production electric cars and will generate insights in varying conditions – both in rural and urban areas. “Our Switzerland-wide fleet network is virtually predestined for this pilot project,” said Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher, adding: “Once again, we’re pioneering ways to address challenges that go beyond everyday mobility.” Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga welcomed this initiative being launched by business and research: “energy storage on four wheels” would contribute to Switzerland’s move away from fossil fuels, she said. This was not only good for the climate but would also make our country more independent.

Electromobility as part of the solution
The fundamental idea behind V2X and bidirectional charging is that electric cars can not only consume electricity, they can also give it back – especially since cars remain stationary for an average of 23 hours a day. But these stationary vehicles can actually be turned into power banks that can be connected to form a large energy storage system – rather like a reservoir. So essentially, households can draw power from their electric vehicles during peak hours, as it were, while the cars can be completely recharged at a cheaper rate during the day – when the sun is shining. 

The share of electric vehicles on Swiss roads is steadily increasing. On the one hand electromobility is generating more demand for electricity, but on the other hand it can also be part of the solution by means of V2X technology. This promotes general grid stabilisation for both distribution grid operators and swissgrid (the national grid operator). In future, electricity suppliers will be able to better balance out fluctuations, minimise bottlenecks in the distribution grid, reduce the need for expensive grid expansions and prevent power shortages. The potential is huge, but it has to be used more efficiently.

Continuous operation is conceivable
Marco Piffaretti, project manager of V2X Suisse and electromobility expert at Mobility, firmly believes the results of the one-year test run will give V2X technology the boost it needs. “This is giving us much-needed experience to help us overcome the technical and regulatory challenges involved in bidirectional charging.” The project is set up in such a way that if it is successful, the technology can be directly transferred to ongoing operation.

V2X SUISSE: Technical Details
Seven companies are involved V2X Suisse, with Mobility as the project lead. In addition:  a car manufacturer (Honda), a software developer (sun2wheel), a charging station developer (EVTEC), aggregators (tiko), scientific support (novatlantis, in collaboration with ETH). The project is supported under the pilot and demonstration programme run by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). Mobility will place 50 Honda e electric cars at 40 stations in the next few weeks (bidirectional up to max. +/- 20kW). Two types of charging scenarios will be trialled: dual bidirectional DC charging points developed specifically for this project by EVTEC featuring CCS combined charging plugs, and single bidirectional Honda Power Manager DC charging points, also with CCS plugs. Both are equipped with ripple control receivers for the distribution grid operators as well as a digital interface. Via the sun2wheel cloud-to-cloud IT platform, the available power will be managed on a quarter-hourly basis for each mobility electric car so as to enable/monitor invoicing.

MORE ABOUT V2X 
More information on the project:
mobility.ch/v2x

PRESS KIT
Download Mobility V2X Press kit

CONTACT
Stefan Roschi, Communication & Media Officer
Telephone 041 248 21 57, presse(at)mobility.ch

Mobility is expanding its fleet with the addition of 30 Mini Cooper convertibles to coincide with the meteorological start of summer. What is more, the range of vehicles in the canton of Ticino will be enlarged over the warm months as never before, enabling guests and locals alike to take full advantage of car sharing.

The Mobility Cooperative is once again making the Cabrio category available to customers with imme-diate effect. To this end, the car-sharing company is providing 30 Mini Cooper S vehicles throughout Switzerland – from Geneva and Zurich through to Chur. As Mobility Media Officer Stefan Roschi says: “We’re delighted to be able to offer this category again – convertibles are very popular in the Mobility community.” The cars will now remain available for booking beyond the autumn as part of the total fleet of approximately 3,000 vehicles. Mobility always seeks to offer the right car to suit every situation – ranging from small electric cars through to estate cars and vans. “The aim is to convince as many people as possible that car sharing is the best option and that there’s no need to have a car of your own.”

19 additional vehicles in Ticino
Every year, Mobility expands its range of vehicles at various locations in Switzerland over the summer months – especially in Ticino. Demand in this region rises sharply with the warm weather, with around half the reservations being placed by users from outside the canton. This year, Mobility is stepping up its expansion in Ticino as never before with 63 car-sharing vehicles on offer there – 19 more than in winter. Additional cars will also be provided in places such as Locarno, Lugano and Bellinzona. What is more, a new permanent station was opened in Castione this week: “Based on demand alone we could actually provide even more cars over the summer,” says spokesperson Stefan Roschi. “But that would require more rental parking spaces.” Meanwhile there’s good news for fans of electric cars in Ticino: six Mobility parking spaces at Bellinzona railway station are due to be electrified over the course of the summer. By 2030, the Cooperative aims to provide electrically powered vehicles only. The preparatory phase for the expansion of the Switzer-land-wide charging infrastructure is currently underway.

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CONTACT
Stefan Roschi, Communication & Media Officer
Telephone 041 248 21 57, presse(at)mobility.ch

Mobility Cooperative is pulling the plug on Mobility-Go in Basel due to declining demand and high operating overheads. The experience gained from this local free-floating scheme will now flow into its core roundtrip car sharing service.

After eight years, it’s the end of the line. The Mobility Cooperative is saying goodbye to the concept of free-floating car sharing and discontinuing its Mobility-Go scheme on 7 June. With this form of car sharing, the car can be returned to any public parking space, whereas in classic roundtrip car sharing, the vehicle is returned to its permanent base.

No sign of an uptick
Mobility launched its free-floating scheme in a bid to capitalise on a trend that was emerging across Europe. The aim was to establish the concept in Switzerland and to run it at a profit. However, recent years have seen Mobility facing declining numbers. The Corona pandemic served to amplify the effect: this is what put paid to the scheme in Geneva. In Basel, hoping for a post-Covid upswing, Mobility introduced a number of measures – to no avail. What’s more, the overheads were high. “For a long time, we firmly believed in the viability of the free-floating concept and in its success,” says Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher. "But while we are keen to innovate, we have to keep an eye on the response of the market in the long-term and, as a cooperative, we need to watch our resources.”

New insights into customer behaviour
Mobility is now concentrating on expanding its core business. “We will use the valuable organisational and technical insights gained from Mobility-Go to further develop roundtrip car sharing,” says Roland Lötscher. Amongst other things, it appears that customers respond well to incentives. This (and other inputs) suggests that aspects such as the end time of the reservation or the return location could be kept flexible – leastways in an urban context. Mobility will be looking into this in more detail.

Free floating in brief:
The idea behind free-floating is that shared vehicles can be searched for and booked on the fly via an app, then returned to any public parking space. Mobility launched the service eight years ago via its Catch a Car subsidiary in Basel and also expanded into Geneva with it. Catch a Car was merged back into the cooperative in 2019 under the name Mobility-Go.

IMAGES
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CONTACT
Stefan Roschi, Communication & Media Officer
Telephone 041 248 21 57, presse(at)mobility.ch

Car sharing specialist Mobility experienced a positive trading year in 2021. Despite the continu-ing pandemic, the Cooperative achieved revenues of CHF 80.7 million and a profit of CHF 2.8 million. Much of this was down to the growth in private customers.

Mobility Cooperative’s red vehicles were kept busy last year, which is reflected in the results. The company chalked up a profit of CHF 2.8 million (+6.4 percent) on increased annual revenues of CHF 80.7 million (+6.8 percent).

While passenger journeys on public transport in Switzerland overall remained subdued in 2021, due to the pandemic, Mobility vehicles saw a rebound in utilisation. Customer reservations were more frequent and lasted longer on average. “I am pleased that the increase in the private customer segment more than compensated for the negative effects of the pandemic,” says Managing Director Roland Lötscher. That said, Covid-19 left its mark: having slumped in 2020, figures in the business customer segment continued to stagnate at the previous year’s level. Mobility is hoping for a marked recovery in 2022.

Mobility was successful in terms of customer acquisition, with a growth of nine percent – the same as the previous year. This increase of 22’100 customers brought the total number of Mobility users to 267’100. At the same time, Mobility purged the customer database and removed some 25’000 records. As Roland Lötscher explained: “These were duplicates of inactive customer data that we eliminated.” The net total of customers now stands at 242’300.

One in ten Mobility vehicles soon to be electric
The digitisation of car sharer Mobility goes hand-in-hand with the electrification of the entire fleet by 2030. Of its 3’000 or so vehicles, 200 are already fully electric, with many more to come this year. At the same time, preparations for the expansion of the charging infrastructure are in full swing – together with partners such as the Swiss Federal Railways, the Raiffeisen Group and Swiss towns and cities.

IMAGES
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CONTACT
Stefan Roschi, Communication & Media Officer
Telephone 041 248 21 57, presse(at)mobility.ch

The “V2X Suisse” project sees seven companies taking an innovative approach to stabilising power grids through the medium of electric vehicles (EVs). Going forward, the idea is that Mobility EVs should be able to provide bidirectional charging – in other words, they will be able to feed energy back into the grid when not being driven. This first large-scale trial of its kind will help determine the future of this technology in Switzerland and beyond.

Electric vehicles are the future – this is also the view of car sharing provider Mobility: by 2030 at the latest, its entire fleet of 3000 vehicles will be electric. What is good for the environment can bring challenges in electricity consumption and grid stability. The recently launched V2X Suisse project is looking to find solutions through resource pooling. Mobility providers (Mobility), car provider (Honda R&D Europe and Honda Motor Europe), software developers (sun2wheel), charging point developers (EVTEC), aggregators (tiko), flexibility buyers and the scientific community (novatlantis in cooperation with ETH) are working hand-in-hand. “By working together, we will waste no time in making bidirectional EV charging a reality and thus gain much-needed in-sights,” explains Marco Piffaretti, V2X Suisse project manager and electromobility expert at Mobility. He is alluding to the fact that Switzerland currently has very little practical experience when it comes to the technical, regulatory and organisational challenges of bidirectional charging. “We are pioneering the project with our partners with the aim of delivering results designed to boost this technology in Switzerland and beyond.” The project is supported by the pilot and demonstration programme of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).

Trial involving Mobility electric vehicles
The collective preparations will run until September 2022, after which 50 Honda e EVs will be deployed for a year at around 40 Mobility stations across Switzerland. This will be the first time that bidirectional EV charging is used across the board in people’s everyday mobility, allowing it to be tested in different settings, from rural to urban. The prospects look promising: a Mobility EV plugged into a bidirectional charging station can feed up to 20 kilowatts of power back into the grid. This would amount to 60 megawatts across Mobility’s entire car-sharing fleet – more than the Peccia pumped-storage power plant in Ticino, for example. This electrical regulating power will help stabilise the grid, minimise bottlenecks in the distribution grid, and avoid, reduce or delay the need for expensive grid expansions. Piffaretti sounds confident: “Electromobility of the future is shared, bidirectional and grid-serving.” V2X Suisse will be setting a worldwide first by deploying the CCS combined charging system, the international plug standard for direct current (also used for fast charging).

Ambitious goals
V2X Suisse is setting itself a high benchmark until the project is completed at the end of 2023: firstly, it will be exploring how this technology can help stabilise the electricity grid and how charging points with photovoltaic arrays can optimise their self consumption. Secondly, it will be aiming to investigate the business potential of bidirectional charging electric vehicles in Switzerland. And thirdly, it will test the competition between the potential flexibility buyers (Swissgrid, distribution grid operators, and self-consumption associations).

V2X Suisse : Technical details
V2X Suisse will operate across Switzerland and thus under different conditions. Around 40 charging points allowing up to 20 kW to flow bidirectionally are to receive a total of 50 Honda e EVs operated by Mobility. Two types of charging scenarios will be trialled: dual bidirectional DC charging points developed specifically for this project by EVTEC featuring CCS combined charging plugs, and single bidirectional Honda Power Manager DC charging points, also with CCS plugs. Both are equipped with ripple control receivers for the distribution grid operators as well as a digital interface. This requires the development of a cloud-to-cloud IT platform to manage the available power for each Mobility EV in quarter-hour cycles; this will offer, allocate, release, directly regulate if necessary and calculate (for billing purposes) the flow of electricity. This cloud-to-cloud solution developed by sun2wheel connects the availability inputs of Mobility bookings with the tiko aggregator relevant for Swissgrid.

IMAGES
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CONTACTS

• Mobility Cooperative: Marco Piffaretti, overall project manager and electric mobility expert, +41 79 620 30 28, presse(at)mobility.ch
• novatlantis gmbh: Anna Roschewitz, knowledge and technology transfer, +41 79 373 73 82, anna.roschewitz(at)novatlantis.ch in cooperation with ETH Zurich, Sustainability and Technology Group (Sus-Tec): Annegret Stephan, scientific support for cooperation-based research, astephan(at)ethz.ch
• EVTEC AG: Markus Kramis, development of bidirectional DC charging points, +41 76 532 80 34, m.kramis(at)evtec.ch
• Honda R&D Europe (Germany) Ltd: Martin Stadie, vehicles and charging points, +49 172 43 63 974, martin_stadie(at)de.hrdeu.com
• Honda Motor Europe Ltd: Lionel Zimmer, vehicles and charging points, +41 79 473 03 79, lionel.zimmer(at)honda-eu.com
• sun2wheel AG: Sandro Schopfer, cloud-to-cloud IT platform development, +41 78 739 40 16, sandro.schopfer(at)sun2wheel.ch
• tiko Energy Solutions AG: Stefan Dörig, aggregator, +41 79 810 39 35, stefan.doerig(at)tiko.energy
• Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE): Karin Söderström, Energy Research Specialist, +41 58 480 84 16, karin.soederstroem(at)bfe.admin.ch

Two cooperatives, one partnership: Mobility is teaming up with Raiffeisen with the aim of giving shared electromobility an additional boost. Over 820 Raiffeisen branches now have the option of stationing Mobility electric cars directly on their doorstep.

For further environmental protection – in addition to carsharing itself -, Mobility will be converting its 3’000 cars to electric drive by 2030 at the latest. The biggest hurdle is the installation of charging infrastructure. With Raiffeisen, the car-sharing provider has now found an important partner on its way to achieving carbon-neutral mobility. All nationwide Raiffeisen branches now have the option of stationing Mobility electric cars. This is a cooperation that opens doors, explains Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher: “Not only will this enable us to rapidly expand our electric station network, it’ll also mean we can boost the popularity of car sharing on a larger scale. For us, this is a unique opportunity to place sustainable mobility on an even firmer footing in Switzerland,” says Lötscher.

Premiere in Freiburg
Whether or not a Raiffeisen branch wishes to benefit from the Mobility electric vehicle scheme can be decided individually by the branches themselves. In order to have one or more e-vehicles stationed at a branch, parking spaces must be provided and a contribution to the annual operating costs made. Mobility takes care of everything else, including charging stations and vehicles procurement. Several Raiffeisen banks have already expressed an interest, including Raiffeisen Freiburg Ost, which will be making its first e-vehicle available at the end of January. “This partnership underlines our cooperative values, enabling us to provide sustainable, direct added value for our region,” stresses Nathalie Sahli, chair of the branch’s’s board of management. Raiffeisen’s MemberPlus customers will benefit from various special offers and discounts.

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