If there where any doubts about the revolution happening in mobility, the Mayor of Cascais, Carlos Cerreiras lifted the veil about what is coming. “In January 2020 road public transportation will be free of any cost inside the town” and its users will win points that can be used in municipal services, concerts and so on. “It’s the start of a new local currency” estimated the Mayor in the first meeting of the strategic council of the Portugal Mobi Summit at the Nova School of Business & Economics in Carcavelos, where the international conference on mobility will be held in October.
Cascais will also be “pioneer in bringing the first autonomous vehicle to circulate between the train station and the university” said Carlos Carreiras.
The mobility revolution for smarter cities continues, with a CEiiA (Portuguese center of engineering and product development) project presented in New York. “It is a world wide pioneering platform, that created the first system for city sustainability management, that will allow to quantify, value and transaction credits on saved emissions” reveled CEiiA executive president, José Luis Felizardo.
Partner of Global Media Group and EDP in this initiative, considers that “the summit is an opportunity to show that the country is in the front line on this matter”.
Equally involved in leading and promoting electric mobility in Portugal, EDP Comercial just launched a campaign to promote new charging solutions, both in the public roads as well as in private spaces. According CEO Vera Pinto Pereira, “we are registering a growing adherence, with more than 8 thousands electric mobility active cards”.
Vera Pinto Pereira said that “these electric charges already allowed saving 500 tons of CO2”. Until the end of May, we are expecting to launch new solutions for personalized measurement and billing for consumption and charging in condos and shared garages.
It is precisely to help find innovative solutions for mobility problems that the Rector of the Nova SBE, Daniel Traça, launched a challenge to his partners in order to identify critical points and put them in discussion amongst students and professors, benefitting of their creativity and international diversity.
One of the first partners of the Portugal Mobi Summit, Brisa Via Verde – that created an ecosystem of mobility services, form the famous identifier in high-ways, to the paid parking and car sharing – it’s still worried with road safety. Luís D’Eça Pinheiro, manager of Via Verde Services said that in a time when we are discussing insurance of civil responsibility for autonomous vehicles, there are a series of other projects in development, one of them in collaboration with Fidalidade insurance company, also partner in this initiative.
On behalf of Fidelidade, Marketing Director Pereira Carvalho said that they are studying products that adapt to the new risks and services of new mobility. There are plenty of challenges, mainly those related with autonomous vehicles, admitted.
For the Volkswagen Group, “electric mobility is a strategic pillar, together with changing the chip from a mere vehicle manufacturer to a mobility service provider”, stated the CEO of SIVA. The focus now is to “get affordable prices, which will happen with the new VW ID, improve autonomy and create convenience incentives, such as exempting electric vehicles from paying parking in certain areas or allow their circulation in the bus tracks” said Pedro Almeida.
Carla Aguiar