Wolta - The Spanish Electric Minibus

This morning we had the possibility to visit a presentation of a new micro bus which is manufactured in Spain close to Barcelona. The presented bus was a Wolta, engineered and designed by the electric mobility company CAR-BUS.net. With a length of only six meters it is the smallest brother of a whole family of three different sustainable buses. We were able to talk to one of the technicians who could tell us a lot about this new product.

It fits up to eleven people seating and up to 24 standing up, with its electric ramp the bus is very user friendly especially for old and disabled people. Not only is the bus shorter than common buses but it also has less width. The size of the bus is its biggest advantage, because it can drive into many narrow roads where a normal sized bus could not. This is very useful for Alcoi because a larger spread of bus lines which can cover the small streets is necessary. 

Talking about the technical details, the bus can drive up to 50 km/h, which is quite enough for narrow streets in small towns. Furthermore, it can drive, depending on the road, up to 150 km in a 15 hour shift. An outstanding feature, especially in hilly areas like Alcoi, is the regenerative braking system, which allows the vehicle to charge back energy not only while braking but also while going down one of the many hills.

Finally, we hopped on for a test drive. Comfortably seated we went off for a small city tour on which Wolta could prove its climbing abilities on Alcoi's steepest hills. It drives very quietly and offers enough space despite the size. We are looking forward to seeing Wolta reguraly in Alcoi and many cities more.

After the test drive our Spanish member, Isabel, gave a short interview about our team and we made it to the news! You can found the article (in Valenciano) here.

Assignment 5: 3 interesting products/services concerning mobility

Before trying to work on concepts in order to reduce the CO­2­ emissions, it is necessary to determine the sector that is the highest emission source in an area to reach with the elaborated concept the biggest impact.
Due to our current state of knowledge and some conferences with our client, we assume that the mobility sector has the biggest influence on the CO2 emissions and therefore we present three approaches to tackle this issue.
 
1. Increase the attractiveness of public transportation

An attractive public transportation system contributes to a reduction of vehicles in use and traffic on the streets and reduces as a consequence the CO2 emissions. However, which are the factors which affect the attractiveness of public transportation?
- Price
- Frequency
- Connections
- Individual added value:
                    - Time for recreation
                    - Sensation of acting sustainable
                    - Wifi for entertainment, work etc.
                    - Route planner application
                    - Timetable at stations


2. City Bikes in Hamburg /StadtRad Hamburg

The StadtRad, which means city bike in English, is a great addition to the public transport. The people living in Hamburg and visiting it now have the possibility to not only use trains, buses and ferries to move around the city, but they are also able to bike everywhere they need to go. This completes the public transportation service to a great extend. With 2.300 bicycles it is the most used bike rental service in Germany. 350.000 people use it over 2.5 million times a year. On high-usage days every bike is used up to 7 times a day.
Every registered user can borrow a bike at any of the 200 Stations, to return the bike one has to bring it back to a station. This does sound stressful in the beginning, but looking at the locations of these return points it is never a problem to return the bike in the wider area of the city center.

The best thing about the StadtRad is that the first half hour of every rental is free, with eight cents for every additional minute and a maximum of 12€ a day. Furthermore, if you need a bike for example for 45 minutes and there is a station on your way, you can just return your bike and some point during your ride and rent a new one for 30 additional minutes free of charge. Most rides through Hamburg do not take 30 minutes, but if it does take longer this is a very handy trick. The system is used by a lot of people who would like to move around the city spontaneous, healthy and sustainable. For myself I had only good experiences using StadtRad.
Website StadtRad Hamburg




3. Carsharing

  Carsharing services are available in over a thousand cities all over the world. As of December 2012, there were an estimated 1.7 million car-sharing members. The world’s largest carsharing network across North Amercia and Europe are zipcar (767,000 members/11,000 vehicles) and Car2Go (900,000 members/12,000 cars). The main factors driving the growth of carsharing are the rising levels of congestion faced by city inhabitants; shifting generational mind-sets about car ownership; the increasing costs of personal vehicle. Carsharing contributes to sustainable transport because it is a less care intensive means of urban transport. Carsharing can also reduce the car ownership at an estimated rate of one rental car replacing 15 owned vehicles(according to The Economist).
Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by hour/day. Carsharing is attractive to people who occasional make use of a vehicle. The organization renting the cars may be a commercial business or the users may be organized as a company, public agency cooperative. Government is also a stakeholder that can be a provider of cars.