BeMobility Project successfully completed
Electro-mobility, rental cars and public transport – two years ago these were issues that seemed to have little to do with one another. Today, with the successful completion of the BeMobility Project, it is clear just how much sense it makes to interlink these.
BeMobility is part of the regional promotion of electro-mobility by the BMVBS (German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development) with Berlin-Potsdam chosen as the model region. Among the participating companies were RWE, Vattenfall and DB Energie from the energy sector, Solon from the solar power industry, the automotive supply company Bosch, Toyota, the multi-storey carpark operators Contipark and DB BahnPark, the information service provider HaCon and the DAI Lab of TU (Technische Universität) Berlin. Other partners in the project included Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg together with Deutsche Bahn and its subsidiaries S Bahn Berlin and DB Fuhrpark along with Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). Associated partners to the project included the London School of Economics and Political Science, the GASAG, Schneider Electric, Netzgesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg, TÜV Hessen and the Reiner Lemoine Institut. The consortium co-ordinator was Deutsche Bahn AG. From a scientific perspective, BeMobility was supported and co-ordinated by the Innovationszentrum für Mobilität und gesellschaftlichen Wandel (InnoZ).
The first nationwide project for the interlinking of local public transport services (ÖPNV) with electric cars commenced in December 2009. As part of the funding programme “Modelregionen Elektromobilität” (model regions for electro-mobility) the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) gave the green light for a corresponding partnership project. BeMobility was one of the projects in the model region of Berlin-Potsdam to be co-ordinated at a federal level by NOW GmbH and regionally by TSB Innovationsagentur Berlin GmbH together with the Berliner Agentur für Elektromobilität (eMO). To this end, Berlin was deliberately selected as a testing field because, compared to the national average, the German capital has a remarkably low density of car traffic and extremely good links in the transport infrastructure.
With BeMobility-Berlin elektroMobil the region was presented with an opportunity to bring electric cars onto the street at an early stage and in an economically viable manner. In the urban environment, given the public transport systems available, the benefits of electric vehicles are obvious. They contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, noise emissions are likewise reduced and the decrease in the emission of pollutants increases the quality of life particularly in towns and cities. When available in a car lending scheme such as Flinkster, the car-sharing service of Deutsche Bahn, they are the means for the city-compatible rediscovery of the phenomenon of the car as a component in public transport systems.
In the past two years, these pioneering trends have been extensively tested and backed up with scientific research. For the duration of the project, the electric and hybrid cars in the Flinkster fleet covered almost 200,000 kilometres and were booked nearly 3,000 times. The idea of integrating electric vehicles as rental cars into the public transport system has proven successful. Frequently regarded as an impediment to using such cars, the assumed limitations on range proved non-problematical with the inclusion of bus, train and hire bike services. Appearing in the summer of 2011, the “Mobilitätskarte Berlin elektroMobil”, for the first time, gave the public the opportunity to test the local public transport services of Berlin, Flinkster – Mein Carsharing (incl. electric cars) and hire bikes from Stadtrad Berlin for a period of three months with just one universal ticket. Again free of charge, the BeMobility Suite information system for Android and iPhone was tested – the system has been designed to simplify car searches as well as changing between the different modes of transport.
The preliminary final results were presented at the closing conference, which took place on 8 December 2011 at the “Plattform elektroMobilität” hosted at the EUREF Campus in Berlin Schöneberg. At the conference, the research results and future development possibilities in the field of electro-mobility were presented together with the project partners.
With the new project, Berlin elektromobil 2.0, the field research is now entering the next phase. Alongside the integration into the public transport system, hire system and information system, there is now a focus on the crucial aspect of network integration. For this purpose, production of a “Micro Smart Grid” has already commenced at the EUREF Campus - a Micro Smart Grid is an intelligent power network integrating the batteries of electric cars into the load management system. As was already seen with BeMobility, power is still drawn from sustainable sources and is additionally generated partially on a local and on a renewable basis using mini wind-power installations and solar energy systems. With partnership programmes extending to Spain and China, Berlin elektromobil 2.0 is now also an international symbol for the turnaround in energy and transport.
Within the last two years, the “Plattform für elektro-Mobilität”, run by InnoZ, has become one of the first stops when it comes to issues concerning electro-mobility in Berlin. It is equipped with a car-sharing station and various charging stations, including a rapid-charging station from RWE, a solar mover from Solon and a parking and charging solution from Energieparken. The programme is made complete with user tests and specialist conferences together with testing and information services for visitor groups.
Owned by the Deutsche Bahn, DB Flinkster – Mein Carsharing enabled some 100 electric cars from various manufacturers to be reserved in cities including Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Saarbrücken and Darmstadt. Other cities will follow. In Berlin there are around 50 electric cars in use, which alongside the EUREF-Campus, are available at many of the city’s public transport hubs. And from this year several hiring stations are now available in the Prenzlauer-Berg district of Berlin.
