Electric Mobility was at the center of the first event of the INSURE.hub Club, an initiative that arises with the aim of allowing the entities that make up INSURE.hub to create learning and cooperation ties with each other.
What are the main challenges of Electric Mobility? What measures are required to unblock these challenges? What other activity fields might be reasonable solutions? This set of questions and many others guided this networking meeting held on May 24th at Porsche Centre Porto, which gathered representatives of about 60 organisations.
During the event, two case studies were presented under the theme of Electric Mobility. The first was about Porsche, presented by Hugo Ribeiro da Silva, and the second was about Mota Engil Renewing, presented by Luís Castanheira.
This was followed by a round table, moderated by João Pinto, vice-president of the Universidade Católica in Porto, with the participation of Hugo Ribeiro da Silva, CEO of XRS Holding and Porsche Porto Centre, Luís Castanheira, CEO of Mota-Engil Renewing, Filipe Araújo, vice-president of Porto City Hall, responsible for Environment and Climate Transition and Innovation and Digital Transition, and Luís Rochartre Álvares, senior advisor of Planetiers New Generation and industry fellow of Católica Porto Business School.
During the debate, it was possible to raise awareness of the adverse outcomes of the traditional mobility model, such as greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, air quality reduction, stress due to the commuting model and the loss of quality of life in cities. As a result, electric mobility mitigates these impacts and generates "social and environmental benefits".
Isabel Braga da Cruz also participated in the event with the welcome and openness message and António Vasconcelos, co-leader of Planetiers New Generation, in a presentation shared with João Pinto on INSURE.hub, an international ecosystem of transdisciplinary knowledge that integrates partners from different sectors that, together, aim to collaborate towards full sustainability and/or regeneration, anticipating the future and adapting to global environmental challenges, and promoting alignment with regulatory requirements.
What are the main challenges of Electric Mobility?
During the debate, the many challenges that Electric Mobility faces were discussed: autonomy and charging time; the charging infrastructure; the cost and availability of batteries; the transition of the automobile industry; the transition to electric mobility requires a significant change in the automobile industry; and education and awareness.
The availability/use of hybrid and electric vehicles, renewable energy (electricity, biofuels or hydrogen); charging infrastructure (development and maintenance); the coordination of individual transport versus public transport (public and corporate policies); the promotion of soft forms of mobility (bicycles, etc); electric corporate fleets; the evolution from product to service (shared mobility) through digital solutions for electric mobility are some of the “urgent measures capable of unlocking the great challenges that arise.”
During the event, memorandums of understanding were also signed with Porsche and Domus Social. These two entities now belong to the INSURE.Hub partner group, committing to work together on sustainability and regeneration issues.
An international transdisciplinary knowledge ecosystem
INSURE.hub, an initiative that aims to create an international ecosystem of transdisciplinary knowledge that promotes circular, sustainable and regenerative business solutions, powered by disruptive technologies, results from the mobilization of the Universidade Catolica in Porto, through the Católica Porto Business School and the Faculty of Biotechnology - and Planetiers New Generation.
The initiative integrates a set of activities that aim to pursue the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Pact Strategy and the goals defined for Europe 2030, contributing to bring Portugal to the forefront of progressive countries within the Union. European.
The INSURE.hub Club is yet another initiative whose purpose is to provide the sharing of visions, perspectives and knowledge of partners associated with certain themes, whose experiences are intended to be inspiring and mobilizing change and transformation.