Why the world needs a European perspective on urban mobility
A number of interesting ideas suggest we might be moving toward a more European concept of transportation and mobility, markedly different from traditional approaches still very much in evidence in the United States or the Middle East.
US automakers have been highly successful in convincing consumers of the benefits of the SUV, a very large and thirsty vehicle that supposedly combines uses that few people ever put into practice, offering greater comfort in exchange for much higher weight and fuel consumption. SUVs have sold well in the Middle East, where transportation is conditioned by high temperatures and long distances between urban centers.
In Europe, vehicles in this range have also proved popular, although the layout of many cities tends to make their use difficult and fuel prices tend to be much higher than in the United States and the Middle East.
With the advent of electrification, led by a US company like Tesla that so far has not produced a utility or small vehicle, along with the problem of space to accommodate batteries, we have also seen how most companies tended to start with vehicles in the higher ranges, and that were consequently larger.
That said, we are increasingly hearing calls for a transportation approach based on smaller vehicles, on…
