Marc Zinkel's key statements during Planet Budapest 2021 panel discussion
“The future lies in flexible mobility and transportation services in order to increase resilience. We will discover a different market structure with new players, restructured business models and new types of offerings to better adapt to new sustainable innovations, but also to crisis situations like nowadays.“
Mobility and Transportation providers need to gain for business models, that enable a faster conversion to sustainable technologies and a higher flexibility to adapt fleets and services to volatile demands. This will drive more ecosystem models, new financing, asset and resource structures and respective intermediary businesses.
“We have to remain the variety in engines, devices, fuel and power systems. We need all of them in the future and innovation is the key to make them even more sustainable.”
Sustainability in Mobility and Transportation must be considered globally. Instead of optimizing particular perimeters with particular solutions, a variety of systems has to be maintained in a sustainable manner in order to decrease climate effects globally in a balanced and feasible way.
“Hydrogen has an enormous potential in Transport. But as for most industries we are lacking end to end solutions. This includes hydrogen powered solutions, but also the value chain of production, transportation and distribution – in a sustainable and profitable way.“
Hydrogen is discussed as one of the most promising sustainable energy alternatives all over the place. But as long as the industries are not served with fully applicable and reliable supply solutions, hydrogen will not achieve a breakthrough as a scalable mass source of energy.
“Due to heavily increasing energy prices mobility is on its way to develop from a basic right to a luxury good. A further increase of tolls and mark-up charges will not function as a sustainable solution. Governments need to define the right incentives for behavioral change and investments.”
In other words, sustainability is also a question of marginal costs – maybe less in terms of willingness to pay, but more in terms of solvency. The only way out is either to reduce utilization and consumption or to accelerate innovation that is leading to lower price levels.
“Financing of sustainable transportation will be a common effort. Governmental financing role in a first instance needs to focus on required infrastructures and investment incentives. But industries and consumers will have to take on parts of the bill, too.”
Not all financial effects can be taken over by the public sector. Financing will only succeed if all economic entities play their part in their respective core areas. This, off course, also means higher prices for consumers and customers – but with a limited rate of increase.
