The ERTICO City Moonshot initiative has reached an exciting milestone, completing interviews with over 215 cities and regions. Building on this success, the project has released a Focus On report, highlighting two key emerging trends: Electromobility and Urban Air Mobility (UAM). The report aims to inspire, engage, and empower cities and regions to embrace these transformative developments, paving the way for a more sustainable and connected future.
The City Moonshot initiative explores how cities worldwide are addressing current and future challenges in mobility and transport. Its mission is to deliver valuable insights directly from city representatives, aligning with ERTICO’s commitment to advancing urban mobility. As cities grow in importance as hubs for transporting people and goods, we strive to foster cooperative, balanced, seamless, and personalised mobility services. To achieve this, City Moonshot aims to interview 300 cities globally, creating a knowledge ecosystem that captures key trends, challenges, best practices, and success stories that can be scaled and replicated across regions.
Focus on Electromobility and UAM
The report delves into how cities are addressing two critical and emerging topics: Electromobility and Urban Air Mobility (UAM). It provides valuable insights into the challenges, priorities, and strategies that urban leaders are adopting to drive progress in these areas.
The electrification of mobility has emerged as a sustainable solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance air quality in urban environments, which is a priority for most surveyed cities. This transition toward cleaner, more environmentally friendly mobility spans various modes of transport, including private vehicles, public transit, and micromobility. Most cities reveal a clear commitment to electrification, often introducing plans to electrify municipal vehicle fleets. The adoption of Low Emission Zones (LEZ) and Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVAR) by most participating cities is playing a pivotal role in encouraging this shift. However, the availability of sufficient charging infrastructure remains a challenge, underscoring the need for further investment and planning to support the widespread adoption of electromobility solutions.
Another trend on the rise is Urban Air Mobility (UAM). While still in its very early stages, some testing initiatives are proving the capacity of UAM to complement existing mobility systems and introduce innovative delivery solutions, such as the transportation of medical supplies and equipment. One significant barrier to widespread adoption, particularly for passenger services, is cost. While we may not yet witness the transport of people via electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles, this innovative mode of transportation promises to deliver substantial societal benefits, including improved connectivity and faster delivery services. Further progress in regulatory frameworks and targeted awareness campaigns will be essential to enhance user acceptance and lay the groundwork for a future where UAM becomes a viable and integrated part of urban mobility systems.
Read the full report to explore all the insights
Scaling knowledge for smarter cities
The City Moonshot journey is steadily advancing. With ERTICO’s team collaboration, interviews are continuing to reach the goal of engaging 300 cities and regions. The insights gathered from these surveys will culminate in a Phase II report, which will integrate findings from both Phase I topics—Data Sharing, Sustainability, and Mobility as a Service (MaaS)—and the two new focus areas highlighted in this report: Electromobility and Urban Air Mobility.
“Through the City Moonshot initiative, we aim to provide cities with valuable perspectives on emerging trends like Electromobility and Urban Air Mobility. These insights reflect ERTICO’s commitment to supporting urban leaders as they explore innovative approaches to shaping sustainable and connected mobility ecosystems”, says Lidia Buenavida Peña, ERTICO Innovation and Deployment Manager leading City Moonshot.
The initiative’s results build on challenges identified within ERTICO’s projects, platforms, and roadmaps, providing actionable insights to address them. Our Partnership and peer associations have played a significant role in shaping the topics, offering valuable perspectives and amplifying the impact of the initiative.
