E-mobility, e-charging and public transport are the main sectors that Siemens is targeting via full-service models in its quest to be a market leader in green transport solutions.
“Electric vehicle charging needs to be local – but it is a great market and it’s growing,” says Thomas Kiessling CTO, Siemens Smart Infrastructure, while speaking at Expo 2020 in Dubai, where Siemens is the digitalised infrastructure partner. “We provide a managed service – platform, software, addressing fleet management, and public bus electrification, such as in London with double decker buses.”
He says one of the aims is to make switching to electrification easy by providing all the necessary tools: “The devil is in the detail. If the fleet manager doesn’t know the process well, electrification can be difficult, [especially if they] only get notifications if something is wrong.”
In the context of Siemens’ work at Dubai’s Expo 2020 site, the green transport solutions aim to reduce or eliminate the need for car ownership, which is a contrast from the car-centric development of the rest of the UAE city. After Expo ends in March 2022, the site will become District 2020, a so-called 15-minute city of short distances for walking, cycling, a 4km electric autonomous vehicle route, as well as access to the rest of Dubai via a metro station, which is already operational.
Courtesy Georgia Lewis