Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast

GUESTS: Hrag Sarkissian, eSkootr Championship (eSC) and Nicola Scimeca, YCOM
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This year will see the birth of an all-new racing series for an all-new sport, when the eSkootr Championship kicks off at London's Printwork's on 13 and 14 May 2022.
The first ever micromobility racing series will feature 30 male and female riders competing in mixed heats on the the S1-X eSkootr, designed by YCOM. Using F1 technology, the S1-X has a Williams Advanced Engineering battery and two 6kW motors, enabling speeds of over 100 kph (62mph) and sharp cornering, thanks to its 55-degree-plus lean capability.
Shortly before the official launch of the race series, Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast spoke to Hrag Sarkissian, the founder and CEO of eSkootr Championship (eSC), and Nicola Scimeca, founder and Chief Business Development Officer of YCOM, about the all-new eSkootr Championship, its role in raising awareness of micromobility, and the importance of sustainability not only in the race series, but in future mobility in general.
ABOUT THE GUESTS

Hrag Sarkissian, co-founder and CEO of eSkootr Championship (eSC). Born in New York, Lebanese-Armernian Hrag has successfully grown an extensive portfolio of innovation-led businesses. His experience in motorsport and tech helps him to leverage the benefits of sustainable technology and micromobility.
Connect with Hrag on LinkedInNicola Scimeca is the founder and Chief Business Development Officer at YCOM. He founded YCOM in 2008 to develop and manufacture the most extreme cars in the world.
Connect with Nicola on LinkedInFURTHER READING

After the inaugural race in London, the races will head to Switzerland., France, Italy, Spain, and the USA. Learn more about eSkootr Championship at https://official.esc.live

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GUESTS: Philippe Brunet, Renault Group; Felix Reinshagen, NavVis; Dr Michael Kohnhäuser, BMW Group

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This episode of Ride is brought to you in partnership with Reuters Events, and was recorded at Reuters Automotive Europe 2022 in Munich earlier this year. Ride was invited to moderate a discussion on producing cost-effective EVs, with a panel featuring:

• Dr Michael Kohnhäuser, Head of Innovation Management and Digitization Production Drive at BMW Group
• Philippe Brunet, Alliance SVP, Powertrain and EV Engineering at Groupe Renault
• Felix Reinshagen, CEO and Co-founder of NavVis

The cost of producing an EV is currently anywhere up to 50% more than an equivalent combustion engine vehicle (read more here and here). The battery alone can account for 30% to 50% of the value of the vehicle.

There are some costs which automakers cannot control, at least in the short to medium term. But what automakers can do is optimise their manufacturing processes, making them as cost-effective as possible. And that’s where the factory of the future and digital manufacturing techniques come into play, as well as more immediate solutions such as digital twin technology.

Groupe Renault has been working with Google since 2019 on digitizing its Industry 4.0 processes, using cloud and artificial intelligence to manage supply and demand throughout its supply chain, manufacturing, and logistics. And BMW Group has recently announced that all of its vehicle plants will be digitised using 3D laser scanning by early 2023, using scanning technology and software supplied by NavVis.

During the discussion, we talked about:

• How to achieve production cost parity between EVs and ICEs;
• How to reduce time to market;
• The role of the battery;
• And what cost effective means when it comes to producing EVs.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

• Philippe Brunet: Connect with Philippe Brunet on LinkedIn here
• Felix Reinshagen: Connect with Felix Reinshagen on LinkedIn here
• Michael Kohnhäuser: Connect with Michael Kohnhäuser on LinkedIn here

Thank you to Reuters Events for collaborating on this recording. Learn more about Reuters Events at reutersevents.com.

You can subscribe to Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to share it, like it, give it a rating, sign up to the Ride LinkedIn page, and check out our website, ridemobilitypodcast.com.

GUESTS: Oz Choudhri, Enterprise Mobility and Oliver Mackprang, MILES Mobility
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
As regular listeners know, RIDE is not an automotive podcast. However, this episode is all about cars.
We all know the story: despite growing congestion on our roads, cars spend something like 95% of the day parked.
They’re also expensive to run and own. Indeed, for many people a car is famously the second-largest financial commitment after their house or home.
So what if we could use cars when we need them, leaving the ownership to someone else, that someone else being a car club or a car-sharing operator happy to assume the responsibility for the total cost of ownership of these high value assets.
In this episode of RIDE, we look at a clear example of usership rather than ownership, with two experts in car-sharing: Oz Choudhri, head of mobility solutions at Enterprise Mobility, and Oliver Mackprang, CEO of Berlin-based MILES Mobility.
In this episode we discuss:

• The differences between car club, car sharing, leasing, and rental
• The challenges and opportunities of free floating and station-based or back-to-base models
• How car sharing fits into the wider mobility ecosystem
• Why car-sharing may be an attractive option for businesses, taking away the burden of fleet management, and helping with metrics such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environment, social and governance (ESG).

You can subscribe to Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to share it, like it, give it a rating, sign up to the Ride LinkedIn page, and check out our website, ridemobilitypodcast.com.

GUESTS: Pierre LaHutte , Navya and Andrew Grant, BloombergNEF

About this episode

Fully autonomous and electric pods that seat up to 12 or 15 people are just about the perfect embodiment of a driverless future first imagined many decades ago.

But they’re already here, and in use.

With a design that puts function over form, these highly configurable and versatile vehicles will play a key role in the race to zero emission urban mobility.

Running initially on fixed routes in small locations, and on campuses and at airports, autonomous shuttles present an opportunity to replace large under-used diesel buses with an efficient, zero emission alternative.

This episode is all about the role of autonomous shuttles in the future of urban mobility, and to help us understand the evolution of these vehicles, we’re joined by Pierre LaHutte, Chief Executive of autonomous shuttle maker Navya, and Andrew Grant, Head of Intelligent Mobility at BloombergNEF.

About the guests

Pierre LaHutte is the CEO of Navya. Until January 2019, he was at Iveco, where he served as Iveco Brand President and CNH Industrial Group Executive Council member. Pierre also sits on the board of Forsee Power, FRIEM and Groupe BERTO.

Connect with Pierre on LinkedIn

Andrew Grant is an expert on future and next-generation mobility, and currently heads up Intelligent Mobility at BloombergNEF.

Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn

You can subscribe to Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to share it, like it, give it a rating, sign up to the Ride LinkedIn page, and check out our website, ridemobilitypodcast.com.

GUESTS: Carla Bailo - Center for Automotive Research (CAR); Joost Vantomme, European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), and Sam Fiorani - AutoForecast Solutions

About this episode

In our trailer for this podcast series, we used the now-famous quote by Mary Barra, Chief Executive of General Motors, who said the auto industry would change more over the next 5-10 years than it had in the previous 50.

Mobility is changing, too, thanks to the rapid rise in cities around the world of micromobility solutions such as shared e-bikes and e-scooters, autonomous microshuttles, ride-hailing and ride-sharing, mobility as a service solutions, and of course, a reduction in travel in the face of the workplace evolution.

So where does that leave the automaker? It’s a simple question, but there’s no simple answer. Nevertheless, we’re confident our three guests will be able to shed some light.

About the guests

Carla Bailo is the Chief Executive of the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research (CAR)

Connect with Carla on LinkedIn

Joost Vantomme is Director, Smart Mobility at the Brussels-headquartered European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA)

Join Joost on LinkedIn

Sam Fiorani is Vice President, Global Vehicle Forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions

Find Sam on LinkedIn

You can subscribe to Ride: The Urban Mobility Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Feel free to share it, like it, give it a rating, sign up to the Ride LinkedIn page, and check out our website, ridemobilitypodcast.com.