More than 200 representatives from manufacturers, suppliers, administrations and institutions attended the IV Smart Green Mobility Forum on Wednesday. The forum, organised by the NAITEC Technology Centre and the Government of Navarre, focused on the latest trends in mobility and the automotive industry from leading companies in the sector. Representatives from Horse (Renault Group), Airbus, Volkswagen, Alsa, Moeve (formerly Cepsa), Acciona Nordex, Autopistas (Abertis Group) and Bosch España took part.

 

Representatives from world leaders such as Horse (Renault Group), Airbus, Volkswagen, Alsa, Moeve, Acciona Nordex, Autopistas (Abertis Group) and Bosch España met this Wednesday at the IV Smart Green Mobility Forum. This forum, organised by the NAITEC technology centre and the Government of Navarre
The event focused on the latest trends in electric, intelligent and sustainable mobility and brought together more than 200 representatives from manufacturers, suppliers, administrations and institutions at the Baluarte Conference Centre and Auditorium.

In her welcoming speech, NAITEC’s CEO, Estibalitz Erauzquin, highlighted the main challenges facing the development of electric vehicles in Europe. Spain has committed itself in the Green Pact to register 4.5 million electric cars by 2030, but in 2023 this figure will barely reach 200,000 vehicles. It seems that their price is still not very competitive and there needs to be a greater push to create the charging infrastructure that is needed, in addition to charging points, to guarantee the electricity demand for this change in the fleet. It is estimated that if all the internal combustion cars in the country were electric, 25% more electricity would need to be produced,” he said.

In the global race to lead the sector, Erauzquin defended, in line with the Draghi report, the need for Europe to “invest more in innovation and facilitate the development of its industry through more flexible regulations” in order to compete with China and the United States. NAITEC wants to position itself as a strategic ally in this process. Always with humility, but we must support the developments that mobility requires in terms of digitalisation, sustainability, the development of safety systems, communications, autonomous vehicles and asset location. All this expertise is a step forward for companies that want to be part of innovation,” she concluded.

Ana Benavente, ESG Director of Horse (Renault Group), then presented the company’s position on the integration of sustainability at all administrative and operational levels. An issue that, according to her, requires a combination of different solutions. We know that we need to make a sustainable and equitable transition over time, so as not to widen the technological and social gaps that already exist in the world. But it has to be a profitable path, where the company is able to reduce its risks and identify business opportunities,’ she said.

As the person responsible for ‘integrating sustainability into the business strategy’, Benavente stressed the need to implement policies ‘based on ethics and governance, not only internally but also with suppliers’; to work on the positive impact of people and operations on the environment; and to decarbonise processes. Horse’s targets are to reduce emissions from electricity and fuel consumption by 42%, to reduce absolute emissions from the use of its engines by 25% and to make 60% of the engines it sells low emission. The tailpipe is a thing of the past. We are now working on the lifecycle analysis of our engines, which will allow us to use increasingly scarce resources while protecting the environment,’ she said.

Participants then heard from Daniel Izquierdo, an expert in electric aircraft systems at Airbus, about the latest innovations in the development of sustainable technologies for aviation. After twenty years of work, the aeronautics giant is immersed in the development of electrified solutions for urban and regional air mobility. In the future, this will enable it to make the leap to long-haul solutions. We are facing major technological challenges in our sector, such as the development of battery systems, the integration of fuels such as green hydrogen and thermal management systems at altitude,” he said.

Another major technological challenge is “ensuring optimal conditions for vehicle wiring, which is under great pressure”. This is a goal he is working on with other industry players in European projects such as HECATE, which aims to develop new technologies for high-voltage electricity distribution. We have many synergies with the automotive sector in this area. That is why Airbus is seeking to create alliances that respond to common needs, a path in which we must not lose sight of the dialogue with the authorities for the certification of these technologies,” he said.

Automotive Hall

After the break, representatives from Volkswagen Navarra opened the automotive room with a presentation on ‘How to transform a factory’, given by Paula Cajaraville, Head of Strategy and Change, and Santiago Herrero, Head of Materials Management. The former explained how they are electrifying the Landaben factory. She mentioned, among other issues, the expansion of structures, the adaptation of facilities and IT resources, and the qualification and training of employees. And all this while maintaining our current levels of productivity, competitiveness and efficiency,” she pointed out. Meanwhile, her colleague explained how the switch to electric vehicles will mean “an increase in the number of parts, suppliers, volumes transported and containers” that they will have to manage at a logistical level. However, he emphasised that the process has allowed them to take advantage of the situation “to optimise the available space and boost the internal digitalisation process between the warehouse and the production chain”.

Berta Aramburu, Head of Analytical Services at Moeve, then provided some insights into the innovations being developed in the electrification of the sector in her presentation ‘Innovating Mobility towards a Sustainable Energy Future’. According to Aramburu, the development and expansion of biofuels is “the great hope” in the decarbonisation process, although their widespread use “still poses major logistical and supply challenges”. She also discussed the opportunities presented by the use of non-polluting fuels such as SAF for aviation or green hydrogen for shipping. In both cases, she concluded that “the real challenge will be to develop the technologies and scale them up for industrial use”.

In addition, Javier Ramírez, ANGH’s VP of technical, project engineering and innovation, presented the latest developments in the use of hydrogen and its derivatives in decarbonising industry. In his presentation, he pointed out that the energy battleground ‘is not going to be Europe’. We have to compete in the rest of the world, except China,” he said. And in the face of competition from the Asian giant, he argued that companies from the old continent still had a clear competitive advantage. We are unlikely to be able to compete on price in simple manufacturing processes. But if the product or the system is more complex, we are still strong and can continue to compete,’ he said.

In the afternoon, Xavier Daura, Head of Innovation at Autopistas and manager of the Future Road Lab, assessed the innovations they are implementing to optimise traffic management in their infrastructures. At the moment, mobile applications play a fundamental role in this area,” he said. On the other hand, in the area of sustainability, he mentioned the incorporation of sensors, among other intelligent systems, to monitor and control emissions.

This part of the programme ended with a speech by Ricardo Olalla, Vice President of Sales and Quality of Mobility Solutions at Bosch Spain, who admitted that expectations regarding electric vehicles are not being met. We are in a bit of a panic because decarbonisation is not progressing at the desired pace. Instead, we are putting pressure on an industry that has made a firm commitment to this technology,’ he explained. However, in the face of the challenges posed by the electric vehicle in terms of charging infrastructure, price, autonomy, lack of information and public support, he asserted that “it remains the most efficient solution from an energy point of view”. For this reason, Olalla insisted on the need to “convey a more positive message to the end user”.

Mobility Hall

At the same time, the Mobility Room opened with the intervention of Patricia López, Director of the Innovation Centre at ALSA, who spoke on ‘Designing the mobility of the future’. López argued that this process is being designed ‘from the perspective of innovation in transport’, as her company has been doing for years. He also highlighted ‘the role of new technological developments in improving the efficiency and sustainability of public transport’.

Next, Iker González, Senior Innovation Manager of i2CAT and member of the Mobility Working Group of Gaia-X Spain, focused on the creation of data spaces in mobility ecosystems, a point he illustrated with the company’s demonstration projects. According to González, “these projects open up new opportunities to connect infrastructures and facilitate secure, efficient and accessible data exchange”.

In addition, Beatriz Rodríguez, Head of European Funds and Public Aid at the Municipal Transport Company (EMT), shared her experience with the audience during the presentation ‘Paradigm shift in urban mobility: opportunities in existing infrastructure’. In this sense, she talked about the opportunities to modernise urban infrastructure, with a particular focus on old car parks in Madrid. She also explained how the integration of renewable energy in urban mobility networks is being promoted, with various practical examples.

The participants then learned about the mobility experiments developed in the Basque Country, thanks to the intervention of Sara Ahetze, technical manager of the Basque Association of Mobility Centres. She recalled the role of the Basque Country as a “laboratory” for testing “connected, cooperative and autonomous” mobility technologies. She also described the advances in urban infrastructure that allow the Basque Country to act as a “pioneer in innovative transport solutions”.

In the second block in this room, Nere Garmendia, Head of the Mobility Business Unit, and Mandy Dotzauer, Team Leader in the Information and Interaction Design Group at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), presented their thoughts on ‘Perceived degree of crowding and quality of public transport: The importance of including the third gender’. Dotzauer defended the need to incorporate an inclusive perspective into the parameters by which the quality of public transport is measured. In this way, given the perception of overcrowding, she highlighted the importance of including the third gender in transport studies, proposing a design of public services that takes into account all the identities and realities of users.

The day’s programme was rounded off with a closing session by Jaume Barceló, Professor Emeritus at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. In his presentation entitled “Reflections on Mobility in the Cities of the Anthropocene”, this expert addressed the environmental, social, economic and political challenges posed by the Anthropocene, stressing that “cities, by concentrating more than half of the world’s population, generate problems, but also have the potential to offer solutions”.