Zag Daily

Anja Huber is an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company - which recently predicted the micromobility market will be worth $520 billion by 2035. For #12 of Zag’s Mobility Leaders: Women Making Moves series, Anja explains why the consultancy’s micromobility forecasts get more bullish every year, and why new mobility and cleantech startups are increasingly relying on a mix of funding verticals to support their capital-intensive technologies. “Venture capital ticket sizes are not big enough. Private equity is too short-term oriented, and infrastructure funding is too risk averse. We need to rethink and come up with new asset classes - some type of ‘climate capital’”. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eYYb_a2W

Cityshuttle today hosted a demonstration of its ePack cargo bike and Geco taxi to illustrate the safety of these vehicles to Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police. The stakeholders were able to view these vehicles up close and ask questions to Cityshuttle’s CEO before the ePack enters production later this year. “We have more safety on this vehicle than any other cargo bike in the world,” Cityshuttle CEO Keith Jones claimed to Zag Daily at the demonstration. “We’re not flippant in what we’ve designed. It’s taken years for us to develop this product and we’ve sat back to look at what the industry is doing and what it isn’t.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/efv_S3v6

The UK’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector, covering electric or hydrogen aircraft, could bring £1.7 billion in economic benefits, according to a new study by consultancy firm EA Maven. The research covers both Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Regional Air Mobility (RAM), identifying the most viable routes for commercial aviation services across the UK. Speaking with EA Maven Co-founder Darrell Swanson in an interview for Zag Daily, he explains how the firm measures the economic potential of the AAM market. “Say if you’re traveling from your home to visit a client on a business trip and that is going to take six hours to drive or six hours by train. For a trip of this nature, chances are you’d have to stay overnight and then come back the next day. But if you can go up and back in a day by flying, that might save you eight hours of traveling. And it is that eight hours that has an economic value as you can be more productive doing your job as opposed to being stuck in a car driving. This is what we’re measuring – the value of a business traveler’s time.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/d6ANGHrp

A new ‘Product Safety and Metrology Bill’ announced in the King’s Speech today seeks to address the fire risks associated with e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries in the UK. Since 2020, there have been over 190 injuries and at least 13 deaths in lithium-ion battery fires, and the UK is currently experiencing nearly one e-bike or e-scooter fire per day. Electrical Safety First, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to electrical safety, has been calling for a safety Bill so that all e-bikes, e-scooters and their batteries gain third-party approval before entering the UK market. Wayne Mackay, Head of Public Affairs at Electrical Safety First, said: “We are thrilled to hear of plans by the Government to finally address the prevalent risk of e-bike battery fires, following our extensive campaigning work on this issue. This Government now has a golden opportunity to turn the tide by introducing third-party certification for e-bike batteries, bringing them in line with other high-risk products already subject to extra safety rules, including fireworks and heavy machinery.” See the industry reaction from Brompton Bicycle and TRL here: https://lnkd.in/dmtEfMn5

Mark Urbanowski, WMG Business Principal Engineer for Micromobility at University of Warwick, shares his top five asks for the new Labour Government to grow our industry. “The government should issue a timeline for the legislation of a new Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle (LZEV) category that would start with privately owned e-scooters, and grow to cover delivery vehicles, accessible transport modes, taxis and family vehicles. This legislation should include manufacturing requirements concerning battery safety, vehicle performance and sustainability. “The sector would also benefit from simplifying the burdensome, repetitive and costly licensing process for mopeds, scooters, and L-cat vehicles making them safer and more accessible, as championed by the Motorcycle Industry Association. This would result in more better qualified riders with full licenses, rather than perpetually using L-plates and having to repeat CBT every two years.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eV-X-YQJ

Canyon Bicycles GmbH has launched a cycling initiative with basketball champion LeBron James to inspire a new generation of cyclists. The collaboration includes a video which features the athlete demonstrating the freedom of cycling. It will also see Canyon provide bikes to the LeBron James Family Foundation’s ‘I Promise’ campaign which encourages students to finish school, live active lives and aim for a bright future. “LeBron truly believes in the power of cycling,” Canyon Bicycles CEO Nicolas de Ros Wallace told Zag Daily. “Together, we aim to inspire our fans to explore what's possible through cycling.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/epcWzSrW

Can Europe become self-sufficient in LEV battery production? A new year-long study by EIT Urban Mobility and EIT InnoEnergy has found that 95% of Light Electric Vehicle batteries are currently sourced from Asia. However, only a fraction of EU’s planned battery production (around 2-3%) is needed to power 25 million LEVs. Allocating some of this capacity to support the modal shift to LEVs, which have an estimated annual battery demand of just 36 GWh by 2030 and 71 GWh by 2040, will also require 10-30 times fewer critical metals than electric cars. “We want the EU and its member states to take notice of the huge demand for batteries optimised for the micromobility sector. While designing plans to incentivise battery production in Europe, policy makers cannot forget about LEVs because they are needed for the sustainable mobility transition and the sector is growing rapidly.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eNmaed_z

VanMoof is offering a €1000 discount to customers whose bikes were not delivered before the brand declared bankruptcy and was taken over by LAVOIE. Lavoie has pumped millions of pounds into VanMoof since it acquired the brand last year. This new initiative is for customers purchasing the VanMoof S5, A5 or any future product to support those who were ‘let down by the old company’. “This gesture is not about loyalty, it's about getting people riding,” VanMoof Co-CEO Eliott Wertheimer told Zag Daily. “We, as the new VanMoof, are doing everything we can to help get people on the road. We are aware that this is a gesture that does not constitute full resolution but we are trying to support every single customer of the old VanMoof to the best of our ability.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eXxNWxjX

Urban Sharing will launch Version 2.0 of its new task-based fleet optimisation platform next month to support shared micromobility operators with on-street operations. Whether it is rebalancing, battery charging or maintenance tasks, the ‘Urban Crew’ app and Control Center are built for suggesting the best possible operational solutions based on historical and real-time data. “Shared micromobility operators face the daunting task of juggling numerous operational challenges,” Urban Sharing’s Chief Revenue Officer Tom Nutley told Zag Daily. “Urban Crew offers a comprehensive solution with a unified interface, leveraging key data points, local operator knowledge, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to enable field teams and operations managers to efficiently oversee, manage, and automate their tasks. This ensures SLAs are met, resources are optimised, and users have access to functional vehicles precisely when and where they need them.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/eMxQcKHd

London’s Santander cycle hire scheme has increased by 900 e-bikes as part of a 200% fleet expansion. More than one million hires have been made on the e-bikes since they were introduced in 2022, and the highest volume of e-bike users on a single day fell on June 27 last month with 3,584 hires. “Cycling has grown considerably over the past two years, with a 20 per cent increase since 2019 alone. This is the fastest growing mode of transport by far and the Mayor and I have been working hard to meet this growing demand,” London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner Will Norman told Zag Daily. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ejzMZRJe