Taxi driver Alex Gonimar rolls his electric Volvo over the blue plate recorded in the parking lot. The view from the 360-degree camera shows him exactly where to stop. Then the spectacle begins. As if by magic, his XC40 Recharge draws power from the ground: wirelessly, with a power of 40 kW. Inductive charging is the name of this technology. It is known from mobile phones, where you place the phone on a charging station. With the Volvo, the whole even works with a distance of a few centimeters between the car and the road surface. Alex Gonimar is part of a larger whole: this is a practical test for the city of the future.
Green City Zones
Gothenburg, with approximately one million inhabitants in the metropolitan area Sweden’s second largest city, aims to be climate neutral by 2030. This is not a global plan, but a fixed goal. “In 2021 we have selected three districts where we will put different ideas to the test,” says Jonas Eriksson of the city’s economic development department. The city’s employees call their experimental neighborhoods Green City Zones.
Mobility must be smarter
Eriksson drove to our appointment this morning in his Volkswagen ID.4; usually he takes the bicycle. He stands in front of a diorama of the city in the Lindholmen district. It shows new high-rise buildings and new bridges. Gothenburg wants to grow. “By 2040, the city will have grown to 120,000 inhabitants, but if more people move here, we won’t be able to increase the number of road users in the city at the same rate,” Eriksson says. “So change is needed. Electrification is one aspect of this. But at the same time, mobility must become more efficient and smarter.”
Last mile with an electric delivery van
Take courier services: Gothenburg thinks of logistics hubs on the outskirts of the city. All goods for the city can then be delivered there. The ‘last mile’ to the customer is only covered with an electric delivery van. So not every supplier with its own vehicle, as is now the case. The distribution of perishable goods, such as food and flowers, will also be more integrated in the future. “A lot of traffic data has already been collected. Now we have to use it intelligently,” says Eriksson. “We need to digitize mobility.”
Smart use
The problem: until now, new forms of mobility have often not replaced anything, but only added more means of transport. “A good example of this are the electric scooters,” says Eriksson. They drive around Gothenburg, but would hardly have reduced car use. The goals of the Swedes are ambitious, but achievable, the city planners are convinced of that. “We as a city can determine the goal. We need the private sector to implement it,” Eriksson says. The example of inductive charging shows what this could look like: Volvo is working with Momentum Dynamics near Philadelphia. The Americans are developing the charging technology that can be installed in the car and in the road. Göteborg Energi is responsible for the power supply and Vattenfall for the billing. The charging pads automatically recognize the car, so the driver does not need a credit card or smartphone app to start the charging process. “Everything is much easier,” says taxi driver Gonimar. Every time he waits for a customer, he now automatically adds a few kilowatt hours.
Ban combustion engine?
What do all these plans mean for car owners? Can you still drive your car with a combustion engine through Gothenburg after 2030? Eriksson: “We hope there will be no more reason to do that. We don’t want to work with general prohibitions, but there are already parts of the city where you are no longer allowed to drive with spikes, because they increase the particulate emissions. In any case, the acceptance of electric carit’s big now. In 2007 there were 125 electric cars in all of Sweden. Today there are 300,000, and that in fifteen years. So change is possible, even within a few years.”
More inhabitants, the same transport space: you simply cannot ignore the fact that everyone is reconsidering their mobility, according to Eriksson. Sure, many people depend on a car, but other people don’t. And so everyone has to ask themselves: can I maybe cycle more? Can I start using a sharing service? If not, can I switch to an electric car?
And then there’s Alex Gonimar and his taxi. He taps the touchscreen to stop the inductive charging. And there he goes again, on his way to the future.
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