Rethinking transport policy through the lens of future mobility: The government has already drafted a set of principles to shape the future of urban mobility and set up the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge for 2019 in its ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy’. This includes implementing a flexible regulatory framework, supporting industry and local leaders, ensuring robust decision making and investing in technology-specific programmes. The government will have to continue validating and building on these objectives, as well as incorporate a rural future mobility strategy, particularly in the context of devolution objectives.
Local and global environmental regulation and emissions control: OEMs face pressure on their existing business models from governments, local councils and international bodies, related to stricter emission regulation, additional taxation (e.g. on older generation diesel) and economic uncertainty which may result in OEMs being unable to invest or defend against new players and under pressure to merge/partner or fail.
Increase in the number of Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZs): With the London ULEZ coming into effect in April 2019, global cities are taking note. ULEZs, which charge vehicles to enter on the basis of their emissions category, could be a strong financial incentive for urban mobility service organisations and delivery companies to adopt low emissions vehicles.
Requirement to supply public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure and coverage: The UK Government's Road to Zero policy to electrify car and van sales by 2040, requires public charging infrastructure to support the growth of EV cars and to build public confidence in the technology. This will need to be addressed.
The UK Government is already facilitating this through a set of EV infrastructure subsidies for individuals, workplaces and local authorities, as well as the £400 million Chargepoint Infrastructure Investment fund that is being formed to accelerate private investment in the sector. However, investment is needed in the entire EV infrastructure lifecycle – from generation to storage to charging.
Policy and financial incentives to accelerate the uptake of EVs: Current UK incentives for the adoption of electric vehicles include a range of financial subsidies, which have recently been rebalanced to focus on battery electric vehicles rather than hybrids, as well as industry initiatives to promote knowledge and awareness of electric vehicles (such as GoUltraLow).
However, a greater range of affordable EV models and consumer exposure to EVs will also drive growth in adoption, which the government can help catalyse by, for instance, launching a public awareness campaign.
Regulatory sandboxing for mobility: To enable the benefits of progress to be realised, regulation must keep pace with technology. The government can set up sandboxes to encourage innovation and concurrently develop an appropriate regulatory environment, for example for micro-mobility, such as e-scooters or package delivery via drones. Zenzic’s Testbed UK is already spearheading this through its six testbeds – the challenge will be to develop a sustainable business proposition.
Smart and integrated ticketing: To encourage the use of public transport, particularly bus riding, the central government as well as local and regional authorities can use evolving financial technology to set up smart and integrated ticketing, such as a national ‘Pay As You Go’ scheme.
