COVID-19 impact on light electric mobility: Analysis of electro-mobility trends and corresponding guidelines for planning authorities and service providers

Smart mobility planning within the context of smart cities may lead to a mobility future likely to differ in significant ways from today’s systems. Light Electric Vehicles (EL-Vs), being smaller and lighter than passenger cars, account for a significant percentage of urban trips. This is due to a significantly reduced trip duration, reduced fuel consumption and reduced search traffic congestion in city centres. To explore the possible impact of these vehicles on existing European urban transportation networks, in 2017 the ELVITEN1 project was funded by the European Commission. The vision of ELVITEN is to craft replicable usage schemes, consisting of support services, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tools and policies, to boost the usage (whether through private ownership or sharing models) of individual and professional users of electrified L-category vehicles (bicycles, scooters, tricycles and quadricycles). It aims to familiarise users with the vehicles and facilitate the access to and usage of EL-Vs instead of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles for their private transport and for light urban deliveries as well as to generate detailed guidelines and business models for service providers, planning authorities and manufacturers to make EL-Vs more attractive and more integrated in the transport infrastructure and electricity networks. The demonstrations, including 193 EL-Vs and over 600 users, started in April 2019 and were completed on 30th June 2020. In spring 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck Europe, the pilot demonstrations in Berlin (Germany), Trikala (Greece), Málaga (Spain), and Genoa, Roma and Bari (Italy) turned into a privileged observatory to understand the effects of the pandemic on the users’ behaviour and new mobility needs of European citizens. Thanks to the analysis of the data collected in the pilot cities, it was possible to obtain useful indications on how the EL-Vs and relevant services and tools responded to users' needs and subsequently, the necessary adaptions for existing transportation infrastructures could be derived from these COVID-19 implications. In this paper the analysis of mobility trends carried out comparing data from the pre- COVID period with those collected during the pandemic period as well as the  guidelines addressed to planning authorities and EL-Vs mobility service providers are reported and further discussed. During the project the users’ behaviour and opinions were recorded by means of data collection from multiple sources, including questionnaires, booking information, monitoring of vehicle activity, and charging behaviour. The results take into account the experience acquired within the ELVITEN project, reviewed and integrated in the light of the evidence, trends and market drivers observed during the pandemic period. The needs and habits of users have been changed profoundly by the lockdowns during the pandemic and will have repercussions for the years to come. Our belief is that these lessons learned can help planning authorities and service providers to propose new mobility models and to adapt the existing business models for EL-V sharing, rental, parking, safety of health and charge services to the new context, which will affect urban transport systems at least in the short and medium term.