Industry leaders gathered at the Smart City Expo World Congress to discuss the unique approaches cities take when implementing e-mobility strategies.
The ‘From Policy to Pavement: Driving e-mobility success stories across the globe’ panel hosted four speakers who shared examples of successful electrification projects, and the challenges cities face in executing them.
Starting with the host city of this week’s Expo, the panel turned its attention to how Barcelona is electrifying its bus fleet.
“Barcelona is aiming for a 100% sustainable bus fleet by 2030 – not only electric, but hybrid too,” Barcelona Metropolitan Area Manager Sílvia Valero told the panel. “That’s our big investment. We’re also making sure that other mobility services we are providing for our citizens have been electrified from the very beginning, like our bike share system AMBici.”
Since its launch in 2023, AMBici’s fleet has grown to 2,300 e-bikes and 200 stations, with the bike share system operating in 15 of Barcelona’s 36 municipalities.
According to Cities Forum Co-Founder Jaime Ruiz Huescar, the electrification of buses is “by far” the most successful e-mobility project in Latin America. He believes that the shift to electric buses has had a huge impact on slashing carbon emissions in the region, and Europe has not yet matched the pace of this progress.
Between 2020 and 2024, the number of electric buses in Latin America increased by 155%, and the cumulative emissions avoided by these electric buses rose 238%.
For Antonio Marques, Director of Technology at technology firm ETRA I+D, electrification projects which prioritise public transport are the key to success. Though he recognises the importance of electrifying private vehicles, Antonio said that electrifying public transport should be seen as a condition for decarbonised cities, and investment is needed to lead the transformation of public transport systems.
“The backbone of the electrification of mobility in urban areas must be public transport,” Antonio said. “Cities need to invest in efficient systems which can manage bus depots both from the operational point of view and from the energy or electric point of view.”
In agreement, PNO e-mobility expert and Senior Innovation Consultant Ángel Moya called for a “top-down” approach to vehicle electrification.
“First, cities must electrify their public transport systems and their taxis. In parallel, they should be promoting cycling, walking and scooters. And then they should move on to passenger cars.
“First, reduce and then electrify.”
The challenges for electrification
For Sílvia, cost is one of the biggest challenges to electrifying public transport. She said that cities often overlook investing in charging infrastructure to prioritise other ‘more pressing’ needs. In accordance with that, Jaime said that cities often set very ambitious goals that they can’t reach.
“They think they’ll have 2,000 electric charging stations within the next five years, and then they end up realising it’s way too much,” Jaime said.
Jaime calls for cities to collaborate more with the private sector to achieve success. Last year, he worked on a project in Costa Rica which involved collaborating with the taxi industry to electrify taxis.
“I think that fostering electric taxis could be one of the most impactful official measures for any city in the world – taxis are the best ambassadors of e-mobility.
“If you land in any city and see a fleet of electric taxis right at the entrance of the airport, you start thinking about how environmentally conscious that city must be. This is something we focused on in San Jose.”
Though recognising the importance of vehicle electrification, the panel concluded that it is not a solution on its own.
“Cities are realising that electricity is just an attribute of a car,” Antonio said. “So it’s not enough to replace combustion cars with electric cars because green cars still cause traffic jams.
“Electrification must take place within the framework of a global mobility scheme.”
