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Mobility Business Models: Get Ready for a Radical Reinvention

From consumers and local authorities, to fleet vehicles and public transport operators, there is broad recognition of the need to increase the pace at which more environmentally friendly mobility solutions are adopted.

Is it time to ditch your car? Or, at least, switch to an electric or hybrid-fuel model? In the face of an urgent need for everyone to limit their impact on the environment, electric mobility (e-mobility) is one of the green options many of us are considering. From consumers and local authorities, to fleet vehicles and public transport operators, there is broad recognition of the need to increase the pace at which more environmentally friendly mobility solutions are adopted.

Of course, for this to truly happen at scale, there needs to be a significant shift on the part of mobility operators, automotive manufacturers, local authorities, and urban transport planners. They must come together to define and operate new collaborative business models built on sustainability principles.

This is a key premise of a recent Capgemini opinion paper Sustainable Business Revolution 2030Released to coincide with our sponsorship of the World Climate Summit in December 2019, the paper asserts that there is an urgent need for radical business model reinvention and the development of ecosystems that will drive sustainable success. With the 2030 target date for emissions reduction set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just a decade away, there is no time to wait. Transport is among the biggest carbon emitters globally. Thus, pivoting to a new, greener ecosystem model for all aspects of mobility has the potential to make a significant and positive impact on the environment.

Embracing new technology

For automotive manufacturers, the development of mobility ecosystems will enable them to exploit new opportunities and deliver new, more carbon-friendly use cases. These include multi-modal transport and car-sharing, both of which offer the end consumer low-carbon, easy-to-access transport options. They will also need to embrace new technologies, such as AI, blockchain and 5G, alongside new partnership models. In our paper, we set out a 2030 vision in which this new technology makes it possible to track a vehicle from the supply of raw materials, such as aluminum and rare earths, through production, sales, and aftersales.

In increasingly polluted urban centers, manufacturers must urgently act to join forces with transportation policy makers and renewable energy providers to scale sustainable mobility solutions. If electric vehicles (EVs) are to become the norm in city centers, a broad end-to-end ecosystem enabling an EV charging infrastructure will extend from energy producers and distributors, to charging infrastructure providers, battery management, and geo-services. Pivoting business models to embrace collaboration is thus essential.

Legislating for greener mobility

Looking ahead to 2030, the widening scope of environmental legislation will be a primary driving force in the automotive sector’s approach to emissions. Governments and policy makers will step up their efforts to find ways to incentivize greener manufacturing and consumer mobility behaviors, as well as innovation around sustainability. Government intervention in urban centers is already making an impact, with many city authorities pushing to make EVs a more attractive option for travelers, using tax incentives and green driving schemes. As an example, Madrid is among many towns and cities in Spain granting municipal road tax discounts of between 50% and 75% for EVs. And in Stockholm, an EV incentive scheme for taxis at the city’s Arlanda Airport is giving drivers with EV taxis priority in customer queues, allowing them to generate better business.

New business models, strategic partnerships, cities, and government sectors are already making a difference. But the rise in energy and material use across the world transport sector remains a critical and worrying challenge. Further, just 7.6% of transportation in Europe was powered by renewable energy sources in 2017. We need to rethink our approach to mobility fast or fail significantly to meet 2030 emission reduction targets.

Download our opinion paper Sustainable Business Revolution 2030.


Author Markus Winkler is executive VP and group head of automotive & mobility at Capgemini. Read more Capgemini blogs here.

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With more than 180,000 people in over 40 countries, Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The Group reported 2015 global revenues of EUR 11.9 billion. Together with its clients, Capgemini creates and delivers business, technology and digital solutions that fit their needs, enabling them to achieve innovation and competitiveness. A deeply multicultural organization, Capgemini has developed its own way of working, the Collaborative Business Experience(TM), and draws on Rightshore®, its worldwide delivery model.
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