Italy’s electric mobility supply chain is narrated in ‘100 Italian e-mobility stories’, a book produced by Enel and the Symbola Foundation and presented today, February 15, by the Group CEO Francesco Starace and Symbola founder Ermete Realacci.
A hundred stories of excellence ranging from the automotive industry to sharing services, from design to technology research, confirming that there have been changes: maybe electric mobility is leaving its niche also in Italy.
There is Archimede Energia that invented the lithium-module energy case, EveryRide that developed Andale, the first app allowing simultaneous registration to various car sharing and bike sharing services. There is Estrima that launched Birò, neither a car nor a scooter, the first fully electric four-wheel ‘personal commuter’ with extractable battery, and Fantic, manufacturer of the legendary Caballero of the 70s, now converted to the cause of electric mobility. There are leading companies like Brembo, Ducati, Iveco, STMicroelectronics and brands that marked the history of the made in Italy like Zagato, which in the 20th. century designed the curves of the Aston Martin, Lamborghini, and Rolls-Royce and in this century is displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a stand next to the Tesla.
Of course, we are still far from the 25 percent market share in Norway or the 10 percent in the Netherlands, the two countries that together with China and the United States account for 70 percent of global sales. However, “the excellences narrated in this book urge to move in the right direction and show that Italy, despite everything, has taken up the challenge of electric vehicles and the new mobility age”, Starace and Realacci wrote in the introduction to the book that will be downloadable from the Symbola website with the QR code.
“Italy is the country of talents, especially in the fields of design and manufacture and the electric mobility industry is no exception. With this collection of stories we want to celebrate Italian-made excellence, while also giving a boost to the spread of electric vehicles”, explained Enel’s CEO.
At the latest Paris Motor Show, electric cars were the focus of attention from press and operators. The maturity of electricity storage technologies, the increasingly wide dissemination of clean energy sources and smart distribution networks, new life and consumption styles, and the targets set by the climate challenge are creating the conditions enabling clean mobility to become the absolute star of the new millennium.
The Italian scene described in the book by Enel and Symbola (which already in 2015 had produced a study on Italian-made green economy together) is lively and composite, and includes centers of absolute excellence, innovative startups and examples of ‘smart conversion’, as well as a few critical issues.
Such as the charging station network. Realacci explained that "of the 50 million euro allocated in 2013, less than 10 percent have been assigned".
On the dissemination of recharging infrastructure, Enel is engaged upfront, for example with the Eva+ European cooperation project, which will create the first integrated system for fast recharges on highways. Electric cars are already on the road.