Podbike - electric assisted velomobile

Project Information

Podbike

Grant agreement ID: 816191

DOI

10.3030/816191

Project closed

EC signature date 10 May 2018

Start date 1 June 2018

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

PODBIKE AS
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Podbike (Podbike - electric assisted velomobile)

Reporting period: 2018-06-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

European cities increasingly face challenges caused by transport and traffic. These challenges are congestion, accidents and pollution. European Commission has quantified these challenges in the following way:
• Urbanisation: A large majority of European citizens live in an urban environment, with over 60 % living in urban areas of over 100 000 inhabitants.
• Pollution: Urban mobility accounts for 40 % of all CO2 emissions of road transport and up to 70 % of other pollutants from transport.
• Congestion: Every year nearly 100 billion euros, or 1% of the EU's GDP, are lost to the European economy because of this phenomenon.
• Accidents: One in three fatal accidents now happen in urban areas and it is the most vulnerable people, namely pedestrians and cyclists, who are the main victims.
To solve these challenges, two separate but coinciding drivers have emerged. Firstly, policies at European and national level foster new and more resource efficient transport systems and solutions and new and innovative companies that transform the transport and mobility market.

The main output of the SME Instrument phase 1 Project for Podbike is a feasibility study that assess both the technical and commercial viability of the micro mobility solution and recommends a reiterated business, development and commercial plan for market introduction.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Podbike has developed an innovative micro mobility solution that could disrupt the mobility market in Europe. The feasibility study shows that there exist substantial commercial opportunities for Podbike in Europe in general and especially in Germany. However, experiences from the US market shows that there exist challenges regarding lifespan of the micro mobility solutions, cost and revenues streams that need to be solved to make Podbike a commercial attractive business case for partners and investors. To this end, the following actions need to be implemented to exploit the commercial opportunities:
Development strategy
• Finalise a comprehensive development strategy targeting the German mobility as a service market.
• Conduct technology maturing activities for making the micro mobility service ready for large scale testing.
• Identify potential customers, industrial partners and suppliers for large scale testing of the mobility service.
• Identify the optimal funding opportunities for the large scale testing.

Supply chain strategy
• Identify customers, industrial partners and relevant providers and suppliers for a large scale provision of the micro mobility service in the German market.
• Establish an industrial partnership for providing a mobility service and an eco-system of technology providers for delivering core solutions for the micro mobility service.

Go to market strategy
• Identify the potential customers that fit Podbike’s brand and the company’s mobility service value provision.
• Identify and analyse the market barriers for targeting the German mobility market.
• Identify and analyse regulations and requirements that the Podbike need to meet.

Funding strategy
• Finalise a comprehensive funding strategy that covers both the public and private funding opportunities and the entire funding value chain.
• Identify potential funding opportunities.
• Make contact with investors in the German market.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Analysis shows that providers of shared mobility service have challenges in providing commercial viable business models. The key factors for making the shared mobility commercial viable are the unit economics and the relationship between use of vehicle (trips/mileage) and the cost of acquiring (CAPEX) and use of the vehicle (OPEX). Through the SME instrument phase 1 Podbike has developed an innovative approach for how these cahllenges could be solved such as:
• Enable economies of scale: Podbike believe that there are economies of scale when it comes to reducing CAPEX and OPEX. Podbike will therefore cooperate with an industrial partner with the capacity to create the economies of scale effects. Potential partner will be large mobility companies.
• Business model development: Podbike is assessing new business models and price strategies for increasing the revenue per vehicle for the company.
• Increased lifespan: Podbike will identify measures that will make the vehicle more robust. This includes use of new materials, parts and technologies. Furthermore, new types of tracking and locking devices would be integrated to increase control of the vehicle and reduce the potential for theft and disappearance.
• Reduced CAPEX: Podbike has developed a docking with an integrated lift that will stack the vehicle and therefore minimize the use of parking space. This will substantial reduce the parking area needed.
• Reduced OPEX: Podbike are in contact with potential partners that could provide self-driving capability where Podbike (in pedestrian speed up to 6 km/h) relocates itself back to the docking station. They’re inherently safe and can navigate around objects and people

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