“Innovators, start(up) your engines:” Racing towards Connected E-Mobility.
Transport & mobility is changing — quickly. We are on the threshold of change that could have more than just an impact on how we commute: it could have an impact on how we live. As a result, we are faced with a real opportunity to shape our future: one that next47 is grabbing with both hands.
Why now?
By this point, we’ve all seen the visions of the future: driverless cars; on-demand transport; cars that communicate with others; charging points in urban landscapes; cloud-based 3D maps etc. In fact, such visions, in many cases, have become reality. That’s right, the future is already upon us. What might have been bold new mobility concepts are increasingly becoming trial deployments. But how is it that we suddenly find ourselves on the verge of such a radical transformation?
The journey to mobility as we know it has been punctuated by certain disruptive technologies all along. But few quite so disruptive as today’s. We are at a point in time where industry-changing forces have converged to have the potential to transform mobility completely. When you consider recent developments in the fields of powertrain technologies, lightweight materials, connectivity, mobility preferences and autonomous vehicles all coming together, it’s no wonder that a whole new age is dawning.
A tech-driven tipping point
Connected. Electric. Autonomous. On-demand. That’s what defines the new age of mobility. It may seem a far-cry from unconnected, gasoline-powered, personally owned, driver-driven vehicles that dominate the “old mobility,” but it could be closer than you think. The wheels of change are most definitely in motion. Much of the technology required to realize Connected E-Mobility either already exists or the high-tech community is working hard to develop it with a view to catalyzing the transformation. Such innovations center on next47’s and Siemens’ core growth sectors: Electrification; Digitalization; Automation. Hence our interest is piqued.
Many startups are inspired by big player, tech entrants like Google who joined the mobility sphere with a more disruptive approach to transformation compared to, for example, the automotive OEMs. The difference is that the automotive players have vested stakes to protect as they strike a balance between testing change in an incremental fashion whilst remaining competitive in the system as we know it. What course of evolution mobility will take from now is still not totally clear: but what is certain is that next47 is staying ahead of the game by partnering with the right people. Should a “tipping point” occur which sweeps aside current mobility systems, we’ll have helped give it a push.
Connected E-Mobility impact goes off-road
To say that the way we commute will change is somewhat underselling it. Disruption will extend well beyond the cars on the road and this calls for innovation in every single aspect of the current ecosystem — or ecosystems that are likely to emerge as a result. For example, you can’t have electric cars without charging infrastructure; you can’t have self-driving trucks moving goods without an entire digital logistics infrastructure; you can’t have copious amounts of data relating to user journeys without a monetizing strategy; you can’t have connectivity without ever-present, reliable network access; you can’t have smart infrastructure without scalable technical solutions. Get the point? The list goes on. The business opportunities are plentiful and many forward-thinking, disruptive startups are already pouncing on them. We at next47 can help take it to the next level.
Out of the countless areas which hold vast potential to shape the future of Connected E-Mobility, we are particularly interested in: digitalization of mobility, including logistics; cloud-based applications for mobility management across all segments of transportation; X2X communications for smart traffic management; further development of infrastructure for electric and autonomous driving; better vehicle choices, including sharing models — and our work has already begun.
Leading the charge
As it stands, although growing, the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles remains limited, yet the safe, fast charging of batteries is crucial to the success of electric mobility. That is why startups have been exploring charging technologies for several years now. One such startup is ChargePoint — a next47 portfolio company. ChargePoint is the largest and most open electric vehicle (EV) charging network in the world, with more than 19,000 charging locations. It makes advanced hardware and cloud-based software to connect its charging locations across the U.S. A real-time network provides users with information including the availability of charging locations via a mobile app, online and via the navigation systems in some of the top-selling electric vehicles. By initiating over 6.8 million charging sessions, ChargePoint drivers have saved over 6.2 million gallons of gasoline and driven over 144 million gas-free miles.
But what if the charging point could come to you? California start-up and next47 partner, FreeWire asked exactly this question and have subsequently turned the world of electrical charging and energy delivery on its head. “The basic idea was to bring the energy source to the car, instead of bringing the car to the energy source, so that more cars can have access to charging,” says Arcady Sosinov, who founded the company in 2014. Their signature product — Mobi Gen — is a clean and quiet, mobile power source which, aside from electric vehicles, can power “just about anything”.
Transporting next-generation ideas
Charging is only one small part of Connected E-Mobility infrastructure but it demonstrates the room there is for scalable ideas from the startup community. Autonomous driving opens up another world, X2X communications yet another and so it goes on. We are not naïve to ignore the well-publicized challenges that exist outside of the technical sphere: regulation, legislation, insurance and of course, social acceptance. Yet no large transformation has been without its hurdles. Besides, we firmly believe that the high-tech community will continue to accelerate change to the point where its momentum will become harder and harder to ignore. It’s all about reaching transformational scale — and for that, we’re here to help. So join us and let’s shape the future of Connected E-Mobility together.
