Business use case
Mobility energises the city of Wil
13.04.2022
The company has completed a pilot project that involved electrifying the entire car sharing scheme in Wil. In addition, the municipal authorities are now offering all residents an annual Mobility subscription. The city’s long-term goals are ambitious.
The city of Wil has set itself a major goal: the entire urban area should be climate-neutral by 2050. Transportation is one area where a number of measures are planned to make this happen. For example, the Wil municipal authorities are currently offering all residents a one-year Mobility subscription. Anyone taking part in the “Wil teilt” campaign does not pay any basic fees for a year, but only the actual consumption. Key Account Manager Magdalena Balogh is also pleased about this: “Together, we are pursuing several goals: We want less traffic and fewer second vehicles on our roads – but at the same time maximum mobility without obligation.”
The aim is to convince as many residents as possible of the benefits of shared mobility so as achieve a beneficial impact on the environment. And the incentive is having an impact: Since the campaign began in September 2021, the number of Mobility subscriptions in Wil has grown from 350 to over 600. In addition, 70 municipal employees use the e-vehicles for business trips. “We’re satisfied with the initial response,” says Magdalena Balogh. “We were able to open Switzerland’s first fully electric Mobility city in Wil and have received nothing but positive feedback from our users ever since.” The past few months have shown that an “electric city” could already function well in 2022. “This is encouraging as it indicates that we’re on the right track with our strategy.”
Tasting is about studying
The pilot project forms part of the MONAMO Wil programme (“Model City for Sustainable Mobility”) which is co-sponsored by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. The cost of subscriptions and most of the charging infrastructure is covered by the municipal utility company Technische Betriebe Wil TBW. Stefan Grötzinger, Head of the Energy Office of the City of Wil and the driving force behind the Wil sustainability package, explains: “Such offers are new for the bourgeois Wil, which has a high degree of motorisation. “We are proud to be a model city for sustainable mobility.” The MONAMO programme with its “E-Mobility for All” service encourages the entire population to explore new paths. The city is deliberately following the approach: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. With low-threshold offers, it is trying to cater to people’s real-life needs while at the same time showing them that a sustainable lifestyle can be fun.
Change is fun!
“Electric car sharing is a perfect fit for Wil and will help us achieve our ambitious climate goals,” says Grötzinger. But things won’t be easy. “We can only achieve the path to a net-zero society by changing our behaviour.” These would take time. services have to be affordable, especially for the younger population.
In the context of sustainable mobility, Wil has opted not just for e-car sharing but also an on-demand bus in the evening that only goes where it is needed. Night owls simply use an app to have it come to a virtual stop. And there’s a bicycle home-delivery shopping service that also involves recyclable waste collection. What is more, Wil residents can rent e-cargo bikes and large transportation trailers weighing up to 140 kilos. “Various factors have to fit together if you want to get an ambitious project like this off the ground,” says Stefan Grötzinger. “You need intrinsically motivated partners and a project group that is as lean as possible but strong as possible.” All of this is possible with the projects mentioned.
Magdalena Balogh from Mobility also has positive words for the project partners from the town of Wil: “It takes courage and perseverance for pioneering projects to take off. Here it was a best-case scenario: our similar sustainability strategies, the high level of motivation and the record-breaking pace of implementation show that we work well together.”