Tag Archives for: Mobility Solutions

New urban mobility: APCOA, innogy and UFODRIVE join forces to provide smart mobility solutions

March 02, 2020

 

 

 

 

New urban mobility: APCOA, innogy and UFODRIVE join forces to provide smart mobility solutions

 

 

  • The companies are cooperating as part of a coordinated smart city strategy

  • UFODRIVE users can now rent all-electric vehicles in the APCOA Mall of Berlin car park

  • APCOA and innogy announce plans to expand the provision of intelligent charging infrastructure throughout the APCOA car park network

 

 

Stuttgart/Berlin/Essen, 2 March 2020 – APCOA PARKING, innogy and UFODRIVE today opened the first UFODRIVE hub in the APCOA multi-storey car park at the “Mall of Berlin” shopping centre in the heart of Berlin. From here, local customers and visitors to Berlin now have access to a zero-emission, innovative and flexible mobility service.

Intelligent electromobility solutions, such as hassle-free, app-enabled vehicle rental, are playing an increasingly important role in the context of digitalisation and sustainability for the urban mobility infrastructure. Last year, APCOA PARKING, innogy and UFODRIVE therefore decided to pool their resources and expertise to combine clean electric mobility with the best in convenience and customer service.

Now, UFODRIVE is opening its first location in the German capital in the centrally located APCOA car park in the shopping centre “Mall of Berlin”. With a fleet of premium Tesla vehicles, UFODRIVE’s customers can now arrive at the bay with just their smartphones and the app and drive away in a fully electric rental car. The bay’s charging infrastructure is provided and operated by innogy. The car park’s entry and exit barriers open automatically as the vehicles approach thanks to the APCOA FLOW RFID chips in each vehicle. The partners have seamlessly combined individual solutions to create an easy, innovative and customer-centric car rental experience that makes a major contribution to the sustainable transformation of urban mobility.

“In terms of sustainable urban development, the car park of the future has a crucial role to play”, says Philippe op de Beeck, CEO of the APCOA PARKING Group. In addition to providing the necessary parking spaces, centrally located car parks also provide the ideal base for intelligent shared mobility solutions. “By partnering with UFODRIVE and innogy, we are taking electric mobility one step further”. As well as providing the parking spaces for the UFObay, APCOA PARKING’s digital parking service, APCOA FLOW, also represents an essential building block in creating a seamless digital experience for UFODRIVE customers.

“With UFODRIVE.COM and our fleet of fully electric Tesla vehicles, we are bringing clean, instant, 24/7 electric car rental to private and business travellers in Berlin. After successful openings in Cologne and Hamburg, it was only logical that we should also launch our app-based car rental service in Berlin. We are looking forward to providing all of our Berlin customers with a best-in-class, attractive and innovative rental offer”, explains Aidan McClean, CEO of UFODRIVE. The start-up rents out purely electric Tesla Model S and Model 3 vehicles conveniently and easily via app and has already opened UFO Landing Bays in eight countries.

“Car parks have a central role to play, not only in the urban energy transition, but also in the expansion of electromobility and public charging infrastructure. Through this partnership, we are providing a glimpse of the city of the future and proving that the digitalisation of infrastructure and the expansion of electromobility can improve people’s quality of life”, says Dr. Armin Gaul, Head of Technical Development at innogy SE. The car park’s charging infrastructure is operated by the energy company innogy, which uses green electricity and innovative charging management to ensure that vehicles are always charged and ready for customers to simply arrive and drive.

The new electric vehicle rental bay in the “Mall of Berlin” is just the beginning for the three partners. Plans are already in place to establish a network of electric vehicle rental hubs in Germany and internationally. APCOA and innogy are also aiming to equip a large number of APCOA car parks with public charging infrastructure, thereby enabling electric car owners to simultaneously park and charge their vehicles. The partners’ proposals are designed to promote the expansion of eMobility across the whole of Germany and include the widespread deployment of sensor technology and value-added digital services across APCOA’s pan-European car park network. Thanks to the visionary partnership the car park of the future will be a central element of the smart city.

Part of the offer is APCOA FLOW: The free parking app makes it easier for business customers and regular drivers to use more than 200 selected APCOA car parks. They benefit from easy and convenient ticketless access and no longer have to make sure they have the right change for the pay machine. Users can decide whether they want to pay by credit or debit card and are automatically billed for the parking services they use. Billing is entirely transparent and users can review the costs of their parking transactions in the app and by email.

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About APCOA PARKING Group

APCOA PARKING Group is Europe’s leading parking operator with more than 45 years of industry expertise. With its 5,000 employees, the company manages approximately 1.5 million individual parking spaces at over 9,500 locations in 13 European countries. These include parking spaces at 1,800 city and shopping centre locations, 400 hotels, 150 hospitals and 58 European airports. With its consistent “asset light” business model, APCOA is the trusted partner who maximises value for private and public real estate owners.

Via its open digital platform, APCOA FLOW, the company connects on-street and off-street car parks with clients, partners, customers and their vehicles. Based on this technology, APCOA is transforming its car parks into mobility hubs, offering innovative services that enable a more convenient mobility experience. The environment also benefits: with its digital services and intelligent Traffic Management System, the company actively contributes to the reduction of emissions in cities by decreasing the volume of traffic searching for parking. By connecting parking and mobility, APCOA is positioned to become an integral part of the Smart City.

Contact: APCOA PARKING Holdings GmbH, Sebastian Merkle, e-mail: sebastian.merkle@apcoa.eu; phone: +49 711-94791-0; www.apcoa.com

 

About UFODRIVE

UFODRIVE is a start-up company founded in Luxembourg that provides an all-digital, all-electric car rental solution. Customers can book premium all-electric vehicles via the UFODRIVE website or app and arrive, unlock and drive via their smartphones with the UFODRIVE app.

The company’s solutions are designed for both private and business travellers and UFODRIVE is already available in many major European cities, including Dublin, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin. The company’s UFObay rental and return hubs are primarily located at airports and central transport interchanges within each city.

Press photos and additional information are available at: www.ufodrive.com/press; www.ufodrive.com

Contact: Jens Stoewhase; e-Mail: pr@rabbit-publishing.net; mobile: +49 151 275 33 262

 

About innogy SE

innogy SE is a leading German energy company with a turnover of around 37 billion euros (2018) and around 43,000 employees. With its three divisions, Renewable Energies, Grid & Infrastructure, and Sales, innogy addresses the requirements of a modern decarbonised, decentralised and digital energy world. The company’s approximately 22 million customers are at the heart of everything innogy does. innogy strives to offer its customers innovative and sustainable products and services with which they can use energy more efficiently and improve their quality of life. The company’s most important markets are Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as a number of countries in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe, in particular the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. With a total capacity of 4.0 gigawatts, innogy also generates electricity from renewable energies outside these regions, e. g. in Spain, Italy and the USA. As an innovation leader in future-oriented topics such as eMobility, innogy is also represented in international technology hotspots such as Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv and Berlin. innogy combines the broad know-how of its energy technicians and engineers with digital technology partners – from start-ups to large corporations.

Contact: Sarah Schaffers; email: sarah.schaffers@innogy.com; mobile: +49-152-54951481; www.innogy.com

Conduent Transportation Names John Peracchio to Top Mobility Solutions and Strategy Role 

November 27, 2018

 

 

Conduent Transportation Names John Peracchio to Top Mobility Solutions and Strategy Role 

 

 

 

FLORHAM PARK, N.J., November 27, 2018 — Conduent Transportation, a business unit of digital interactions company Conduent Incorporated, announced the appointment of John Peracchio as general manager, Mobility Solutions and Strategy. 

 

 

“John brings more than 30 years of experience, most recently focusing on how intelligent transportation products and technologies are deployed,” said Mick Slattery, CEO, Conduent Transportation. “These include connected vehicle technologies, tolling innovations, and ‘smart’ parking and other systems that improve safety, mobility and sustainability.” 

Based in Detroit, Peracchio will be responsible for creating future business models and developing strategies that offer long-term growth for Conduent Transportation. He will use his knowledge of the industry to identify emerging innovations and technologies, as well as potentially disruptive practices, inside and outside the company, while seeking new business opportunities. 

Since 2007, he has been a consultant providing strategic advice to businesses, investors and public entities. He has also chaired the Michigan Council on Future Mobility, a 21-member advisory panel within the state’s Department of Transportation. The council advises the governor and Michigan Legislature on policies that will lead to the adoption of technologies associated with connected and highly automated vehicles, and enhancing personal mobility. 

Previously, Peracchio was a senior vice president at Harman Becker Automotive Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Brown University and a law degree from Columbia Law School. 

Conduent Transportation is a leading provider of public transportation and mobility solutions – including electronic toll collection, parking management, and advanced transit and safety systems – that offer automated, analytics-based and personalized services for government agencies and their constituents. The company has been helping transportation clients for more than 50 years and operates in 27 countries. 

 

About Conduent 

Conduent creates digital platforms and services for businesses and governments to manage millions of interactions every day for those they serve. We are leveraging the power of cloud, mobile and IoT, combined with technologies such as automation, cognitive and blockchain to elevate every constituent interaction, driving modern digital experiences that are more efficient, helpful and satisfying. 

Conduent’s differentiated offerings touch millions of lives every day, including two-thirds of all insured patients in the U.S. and nearly nine million people who travel through toll systems daily. Whether it’s digital payments, claims processing, benefit administration, automated tolling, customer care or distributed learning – Conduent serves a majority of the Fortune 100 companies and more than 500 government entities. Learn more at www.conduent.com. 

 

Media Contacts: 

Neil Franz, Conduent, neil.franz@conduent.com 

Investor Relations Contact: 

Alan Katz, Conduent, alan.katz@conduent.com 

 

CivicSmart Announces New EVP of Mobility Solutions

October 04, 2016

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CivicSmart Announces New EVP of Mobility Solutions

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (October 4, 2016) – CivicSmart, Inc., an innovator of patented on-street parking sensors and other “Smart Parking” technologies, has announced the hiring of Gretchen Effgen, who will join the CivicSmart management team as Executive Vice President of Mobility Solutions for its emerging mobility division.  A key component of the future of “Smart Cities”, Ms. Effgen will develop partnerships and business models to deploy smart parking-embedded mobility programs globally. In this rapidly evolving landscape, thought leadership is essential and Ms. Effgen is bolstered by her work as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, where she is actively involved in shaping cities of the future.

 

 

“Gretchen has served CivicSmart with energy and insight as a Board Member for over a year.  The executive team values her perspective and commitment.  When the opportunity arose to secure Gretchen’s talents on a full-time basis, we jumped at the chance,” said Chief Executive Officer Mike Nickolaus.  “I’m delighted to have Gretchen join our executive team.”

 

Founder and Chief Technology Officer Balu Subramanya added, “Our Smart Parking technologies have served thousands of cities for decades, but the next five years will see dramatic change in the transportation industry.  There is tremendous opportunity for our solutions to be deployed into the broader Urban Mobility market but we needed someone with the strategic vision and track record of pulling together partnerships to drive us forward.  Gretchen has proven she can do that.”

 

Ms. Effgen has been involved in building smart cities partnerships since her time at Zipcar, where she led Business Development and then Strategy during her four year tenure.  Following Zipcar, Effgen served as the Vice President of Sales and Business Development at coUrbanize, a community engagement platform for city planning and development.  Additionally, Ms. Effgen has consulted to high-growth, globally expanding businesses and spent several years in Washington, DC, as an international trade advisor to foreign governments.

“The opportunity to join the CivicSmart team at this critical inflection point in the transportation and urban mobility industries is extremely exciting,” said Effgen. “As our cities and transportation networks continue to push for efficiency and data-driven solutions, the market opportunity for CivicSmart’s proprietary technology is extraordinarily compelling.”

 

Effgen holds a BA from Tulane University and an MBA from the London Business School, serves on the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, and advises the US Fund for UNICEF.

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About CivicSmart

CivicSmart, Inc., is a technology services and engineering company specializing in developing and delivering innovative parking and transportation offerings.  CivicSmart’s patented “Smart Parking” solutions can be found today in 2,000 cities around the world.  These solutions include vehicle detection sensors, smart parking meters, wireless handheld enforcement devices, electronic permits, and comprehensive data management systems.  More information about CivicSmart is available at CivicSmart.com.