Back to Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprises Committee publications

 

1st European Automotive and Mobility Services Conference: innovations in mobility services

5 March 2020

 

Rapporteur

Andreas Kloyer
Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Frankfurt
andreas.kloyer@luther-lawfirm.com

 

Session Co-Chairs

Anna Dabrowska  Wardynski & Partners, Warsaw

Matthias Etzel  Beiten Burkhardt, Munich

 

Speakers

Maria Grazia Davino  CEO, FCA Germany AG, Frankfurt 

Daniel Niederberger  Managing Director, NewMobilityBusiness GmbH, Munich

Cosmas Asam  Vice President Mergers & Acqusitions, Cooperation Management, Economics at BMW Group, Munich

Moritz Wefelscheid  Senior Director Legal Europe, Attorney-at-law (Germany), Mediator (CVM) of NIO GmbH, Munich

 

This session intended to give an overview of new developments in the automobile industry and current challenges, including autonomous vehicles, affordable transport solutions (eg, ride and car sharing), micro mobility (eg, bicycles and e-scooters) and robo-taxi or air taxis.

The panel discussion started with an outline on key topics being discussed worldwide relating to the mobility sector and an initial discussion in which panellists basically agreed on positions, such as:

• the future mobility is characterised by new thinking, forming partnerships, connecting topics, and bridging established companies with start-ups. Shaping this world requires a new approach;

• new technologies and changed customer behaviour will have an enormous push;

• mobility services can be around the car, for example to simplify the charging of electric cars;

• on a higher level, mobility services also allow a multimodal travel experience; and 

• shared vehicles, e-scooters, robo taxis and air taxis are on the rise and may have an impact on the market.

Daniel Niederberger then gave a deep insight into actual trends being widely discussed in the industry with regard to factors of the market success of mobile services in future. The following statements were highlighted and afterwards discussed by panellists:

• the car as we know will change dramatically, not only driven by OEM (original equipment manufacturer)/industry offers, but also by the development of urban structure and generational purchasing power; 

• market participants will have to change their policies to be ready to offer mobility services in the future. Since no single player has all knowledge/means necessary to cover all aspects, the guideline is to be open to all kinds of collaboration;

• new mobility concepts, such as e-scooters and air taxis, will have their chance, depending on the respective market environment. E-scooters, for example could be a very good solution in density-populated areas, improved and maximised through well-thought-out digitalisation. However, there are still a number of regulatory issues to be solved. Air-taxis seem too far from realisation; 

• charging infrastructure is crucial for the e-mobility breakthrough – the longer the distance range of a car, the more charging infrastructure is needed because people will make longer journeys;

• market demands may be different in various regions. It may well be that the expectations of China’s car buyers are different to those from Germany or the United States; and

• as today’s cars are becoming increasingly digitised, the fear that cars may be hacked illustrates the challenge for car manufacturers to be prepared to provide digital/cyber security as part of the quality pattern of future mobility solutions.

Following an intensive discussion, panellists and the audience were invited to comment on topics around autonomous driving, starting with two questions:

• do you think that by 2030 ‘driverless cars’ will be available for private individuals in the European Union?

• do you think that by 2030 you will be able to use a robot-taxi in the EU?

The session made clear that there is still a long way to go until e-mobility concepts or autonomous driving will be widely accepted by the general public. Many aspects have to be considered and further developed to offer a real alternative to mobility solutions as we know them today. New and creative collaboration models between all market participants have to be implemented and realised for finding solutions to the challenges which are being identified on the way of developing new mobility concepts for a growing global population.