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: Mark Preston, StreetDrone; Dan Goff, Kodiak Robotics; Lukas Neckermann, PAVE Europe & Neckermann Strategic Advisors

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Autonomous passenger cars are just one aspect of autonomous vehicle development. The autonomous vehicles we discuss in this episode are autonomous trucks pulling heavy loads.

Martin and guest co-host Lukas Neckermann chat to Dan Goff of Kodiak Robotics and Mark Preston from StreetDrone about the use of AV technology in first-mile, last-mile, and long-haul freight and logistics.

StreetDrone develops technology for autonomous logistics applications, with vehicles using its solutions for first- and last-mile short-distance heavy load haulage on private and off-highway roads in industrial compounds such as ports, notably the Port of Rotterdam, and factories, such as Nissan's Sunderland car factory.

It's from Kodiak Robotics that we get the 18,000-mile reference in the title; the "Kodiak Driver" enables autonomous long-haul highway driving for Class 8 trucks - that is, US big-rig 18-wheelers. And it does this on an 18,000-mile network of highways that covers almost a fifth of the US Interstate System, taking in 14 states and spanning four time zones.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Mark Preston is Co-Founder and CTO of autonomous truck systems supplier StreetDrone, and Director of Lola Cars Motorsport. He began his career in Formula 1, with stints as Head of R&D at Arrows, Principal Designer at McLaren Racing, and Founder & Technical Director of the Super Aguri Formula 1 team. After F1, he became the most decorated Team Principal in the history of Formula E.

Connect with Mark on LinkedIn

Dan Goff is Director of External Affairs at Kodiak Robotics. His career includes time at Accenture, the role of Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce, and the Board of the ACLU of Illinois.

Connect with Dan Goff on LinkedIn

Lukas Neckermann runs Neckermann Strategic Advisors, and is a co-founder of PAVE Europe.

Connect with Lukas on LinkedIn

Picture credit: Marcin Jozwiak

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.

GUEST: Inderveer Singh, CEO, EVage Motors

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

EVage Motors pitches itself not as an electric commercial vehicle company, but as "a tech-driven, innovations-led, purpose-powered, new-age electric mobility solution company."

And the solution it's developing is to the problem of city pollution. EVage founders - who established the company in Chandigarh, northern India in 2014 - note that although cities occupy just 5% of the world's land mass, they are home to 50% of the world's population. They also struggle from poor air quality, and commercial vehicles alone are responsible for over a third of atmospheric pollution - hence EVage's focus on delivering sustainable commercial vehicles.

In this episode, you’ll hear co-founder & CEO Inderveer Singh talk about:

🇮🇳 Why an Indian company is bringing an all-new electric CV brand to market
✅ How to balance sustainability with vehicle performance
🚚 Why electrification is important not just for OEMs and fleets, but for the truck drivers themselves
✅ The EVage scalable skateboard platform
🏭 The company’s M3 modular manufacturing strategy
🔋 Innovative LTO Li-ion EV battery technology
🌍 Ambitions for overseas expansion

Connect with Inderveer 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.