Mobility is changing and more than will change. Transit towards a new paradigm in which people and goods will move in a more sustainable, safe and efficient way. In this scenario of the future, the protagonists are no longer just means of transport, be they trains, cars, planes or scooters. The new mobility is also technology and mentality to adapt to the demands imposed by the climate emergency.
All stakeholders in the sector are working to achieve these objectives, whether public or private, transport operators, technology companies and research centers. The goal is to achieve the efficient and sustainable multimodal combination that meets the needs of the traveler. These were some of the conclusions of the conference organized by La Vanguardia and the channel Moveo Presente y Futuro de la Movilidad, held this week in Madrid.
Moderated by the deputy director of La Vanguardia, Enric Sierra, the first debate, dedicated to transport and infrastructures, included the participation of Marco Sansavini, president and CEO of Vueling; Raül Blanco, president of Renfe; Christian Barrientos, CEO of Abertis Mobility Services; Berta Barrero, general director of Mobility at Indra; Arturo Pérez de Lucía, General Director of the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of Electric Mobility in Spain and Portugal (Aedive) and Vice President of AVERE, the European Association of Electric Mobility; and María Eugenia López-Lambas, deputy director of TRANSyT, Transport Research Center.
“The challenge is enormous, but we have a very promising scenario ahead of us,” said Sansavini, who explained that, despite the fact that aviation is not one of the most polluting industries, since it represents between 2 and 3% of global emissions , it is important to undertake measures that allow progress towards the goal of net zero emissions. For the president and CEO of Vueling, the future lies not so much in the ban on short and medium-haul flights, as France has done in a more aesthetic than effective measure, but in the production and use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). , which allow a reduction of up to 80% of emissions compared to traditional fuels. And there, Spain, he argued, “has a great opportunity” to become a producer of this type of fuel, originated from organic waste, thanks to its capacity in renewable energy, which is used in the SAF production process. It may be, he said, in one of the European leaders. “But we haven’t moved on that path,” he noted.
The interrelation of the plane and the train in a part of international mobility is important, pointed out the president of Renfe, before affirming that the railway, with its high-speed lines, is already naturally taking over the passengers of plane journeys of short and medium radius. “The train is prepared to take on passengers and routes”, he stressed, to then point out that, since 2021, with a very intense liberalization process, the railway “gains passengers on those routes where it is”.
Vehicles are obviously an important element of mobility. The CEO of Abertis Mobility Services underlined the three great forces driving the transformation: the increase in the urban population, which produces pressure to develop mobility infrastructures within cities and to connect cities; the need for citizens to move, which makes it necessary to incorporate demand management elements, such as pay-per-use, which is under discussion in Spain, while other countries, such as the United States, where this debate has been overcome and thanks satellite technology is already implementing a more equitable distance payment system for users; and the connected car, thanks to which better management of traffic flow and safety could be carried out. “The discussion is how we implement a more sustainable, intelligent, fair and rational model and that together we achieve a better use of the infrastructure,” Barrientos summarized.
As for the electric car, Pérez de Lucía assured that it is progressing “at a reasonable pace”. The offer has acquired a significant degree of maturity, with a portfolio of vehicles that respond to the needs of users and with increasing capacities. “You can travel throughout Spain,” he stressed, while noting that there is currently no public charging infrastructure deficit, whose level of usability is 4.2%. The network, however, does have to grow given the foreseeable arrival of more electric vehicles, the manufacturers’ commitment to other alternatives, such as green hydrogen. And it is in the deployment of this network where one of the important challenges lies. “Barriers must be removed,” he said, because if the regulation is not simplified, there is a risk that planned investments in Spain end up in other countries. The other challenge of the electric car is fiscal in nature. In Spain, “you have to have financial muscle to buy a vehicle, since the aid is received after one or two years.”
The new mobility is only possible thanks to technology, the “catalyst” of change, in the words of the Indra representative. “The new mobility has to achieve a multimodal combination that is efficient and sustainable, and that means not only that it be clean, but that it maximizes the capacity of each of the infrastructures,” Barrero said. “We have been growing vertically and now it is time for a suprasystem that integrates everything”, she declared. The technology and the appropriate governance schemes are what will help to order this intelligent intermodality, she reasoned.
The deputy director of TRANSyT also spoke about multimodality. In addition, López-Lambas highlighted the importance of public transport in the areas and pointed out shared mobility as a trend that is consolidating, with numerous systems and users. For example, what happens with the driver’s license. Before, young people took it off at the age of 18, “as a rite of passage”; now those who want to live in the city give up the car. In this sense, he stated that in order to achieve decarbonization it is necessary not to access the city center by car and for this the regulatory framework plays a fundamental role, while advocating a change in user mentality towards more sustainable models. .
The second round table dealt with cities. “Smart cities: transformation towards sustainable mobility”, moderated by Pere Prat, journalist from Moveo. The colloquium was attended by Xavier Oms, Director of Mobility and Equipment at CaixaBank; Antonio Lucio, specialist in sustainability and mobility; Daniel Serra, ecosystem director at EIT Urban Mobility and member of the board of directors of Gaia-X, and Lola Ortiz, general director of Planning and Mobility Infrastructures at the Madrid City Council.
In the smart city, data, “the new oil”, has a fundamental value, Serra remarked. In 2025, she explained, 5% of GDP could be a data economy and, in mobility, data can help make “better decisions”. However, it is necessary to give value to the data and create a platform where it can be shared safely.
Madrid, Ortiz explained, has a big data platform that includes all the information that makes it possible to plan trips and works on another platform, with integrated data from public transport and private shared vehicle operators, where you can make reservations. the different modes needed to complete the door-to-door journey.
“Smart cities are smart cities, but intelligence does not come only from smart gadgets, but from smart behavior, from collective intelligence,” stressed Antonio Lucio, who underlined the mantra that “in mobility, the priority are strategies to avoid trips”. In this sense, he valued the contribution that teleworking makes to decongestion and stressed that a crucial component in the ecosystem of sustainable mobility are values. “In Spain we lack momentum and exemplary foci,” he concluded.
The representative of CaixaBank contributed to the colloquium the data on the evolution of the different ways of enjoying a car. It is no longer just about owning a vehicle, as was the case in the past. Now, formulas such as renting are gaining ground among individuals and not only among companies. “26% of the total registrations in Spain are made in renting and we see a growth of one or two points per year,” said Oms. The first step, he said, has been taken, but other formulas, such as car sharing or subscription, are advancing at a slower pace. For them to prevail, he argued, a change in user habits is needed and the models must be profitable for those who operate them.
The Minister of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda, Raquel Sánchez, was in charge of closing the day. After making an exhaustive review of the policies of her department, Raquel Sánchez assured that the challenges in mobility “are great”, but she was convinced that the sum of efforts “will allow us to achieve the objectives”. Cooperation and dialogue, she stated, are essential to develop transformative and innovative policies, while she emphasized that mobility and sustainability “are inseparable terms.” At this point, she stressed that, with 13,000 million euros, sustainable mobility is one of the great destinations for Next Generation European funds.
Sánchez advocated the transformation of our cities to move towards sustainable and electrified mobility, which has technology and digitization as allies and which involves offering alternatives to the private car. Sánchez recalled that the goal is to ensure that Spanish cities are carbon neutral by 2050, that they practice a circular economy in the use of resources and that they multiply their resilience to the impacts of climate change.
