Reshape Mobility Culture

The total number of road vehicles in the world, + 98% of which are Light Duty Vehicles (LDV), has been doubling every 20 years.

From 342 million in 1976, it rose to 670 million in 1996, rising to 1.320 million in 2016 and, at this rate, there will be 2.800 million in 2036.

In the last 12 years, an average of 87 million new vehicles were produced per year, of which +60% end up in cities.

Technology, infrastructures, and regulation has been insufficient to mitigate the negative impacts of this brutal growth, that translated into identical growth in GHG production and energy consumption, being the only one industrial sector in which GHG have always grown.

The current European directives aim the carbon neutrality in the road transport sector in 2050, essentially through non-ICE vehicles (Internal Combustion Engines).

Not even entering the controversy of the viability of this objective, three realities are indisputable:

1.Such directives are little reflected, considering the entire life cycle of the sector, in the road transport increase in energy consumption (in Portugal the transport sector represents the largest share of energy consumption: 38%..!)

2.The cost of energy for road transport end users will not decrease in the coming decades

3.Although the most spoken about today, due to Climate Change concerns, road transport Environmental External Cost is the minor one, accounting for 27%, while congestion accounts for 32% and accidents for 41%

Since 2010, Livedrive has been dedicated to analyzing the impact of behavioral and cultural components on sustainable surface mobility. We have scientifically demonstrated that (i) changes in these strands lead to savings of more than 30% both in the External and Internal Costs of road transport, and that (ii) the best way to achieve them is through fine tuned incentives-charging policies.

In late 2018, the EC, given the true costs of EU Transport then calculated, said: “… helped to define the right incentives and charging models in order to promote a level-playing field among transport modes, as well as support our goal of zero roads deaths by 2050”,

finally opening the opportunity to apply all the knowledge acquired by Livedrive in the last decade in market solutions.

Miguel Aires