Best of mobility design 2021

A celebration of the new normal of remote working, this Nissan NV 350 is a full-fledged office on wheels. Unfortunately, it’s just a concept, but it’s a symbol of how the topic of remote work has become widely accepted.

In September, Rolls Royce’s first electric plane, the Spirit of Innovation, completed its first-ever flight. The aircraft flew for 15 minutes, marking the beginning of an intense period of test flights. The project is part of a program called ACCEL or Accelerating the Electrification of Flight, which Rolls Royce has started with partners such as YASA and Electroflight.

While we’re trying to make air travel more sustainable, Elon Musk’s Hyperloop is working to revolutionise ground transportation with its maglev pods running underground at very high speeds. 2021 has been a successful year for Musk’s bold project, with Italy announcing the opening of a hyperloop network by 2030 and more testing ongoing in California and Florida.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation has unveiled a new maglev train to revolutionise high-speed ground transportation. Thanks to a top speed of 600km/h, the new train could cover the distance between Shanghai and Beijing in less than three hours. While the train is completed, China is still working on a network of compatible magnetic tracks.

The Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started testing their Roboats. These autonomous electric boats will eventually roam Amsterdam’s waterways to shuttle people around the city. Roboats are powered by an electric battery that can power the vessel for 24 hours at an average speed of 4mph.

Back in October, Electric bike manufacturer Van Moof announced the V, its first s-pedelec hyper-bike. The new two-wheeler can reach a top speed of 45 km/h, has a unique frame design to sustain higher speeds, and will cost €3500. Deliveries are planned for late 2022.

At IAA Mobility 21 in Munich, EVOC announced the world’s first backpack with integrated airbag technology, the EVOC Commute A.I.R. Pro 18. The new product is part of EVOC Sports new commuting capsule collection, a range of products dedicated to bicycle riders who travel in car-dense urban areas.

Swiss startup Scewo in 2021 unveiled a new electric wheelchair that can climb a flight of stairs on its own, thanks to an innovative lifting and self-balancing mechanism invented by the startup. The idea behind BRO (as the climbing wheelchair is called) is to leverage inclusive design to enable a new level of citywide accessibility for anyone in a wheelchair.

BMW Motorrad’s latest concept, called the CE 02, is an exciting approach to urban mobility for a younger GEN-Z crowd. The electric scooter is lightweight and easy to drive but could still reach a maximum speed of 90km/h. Like many concepts, it won’t hit the road any time soon, if ever, but it’s still sparking a critical design-oriented discussion about the future of urban transport for younger people in the future.     

Adaptive City Mobility is a new German project trying to solve the future of mobility through a smart-ecosystem approach. In 2023 the company will start mass-producing the ACM One, the small and versatile electric car that should be the building block of the whole system. Powered by a set of swappable batteries, the One has a virtually infinite range. The vehicle can also be easily repurposed as a commuting car for multiple people or a commercial two-seater to transport goods.

At the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Volkswagen unveiled a new concept for its ID Life car, a precursor to the entry-level ID One EV car that the German manufacture will launch in 2024 or 2025. Based on the same Meb platform powering the ID.3 and ID.4, the new vehicle will have a target price of 20.000€, making it VW’s first affordable “people’s EV car”.

In 2021, smart mobility Startup Lynk and Co. expanded its presence in more European countries, including Italy and Germany. The company operates an innovative business model, mixing long-term rent with car sharing. Users can rent the 01 car model for 500€ per month and rent it out through the Lynk app to other users while they’re not actively driving it.

At IAA Mobility, Mercedes Benz unveiled an eye-catching concept for the first all-electric G-Class. The boxy EV Suv is just a concept, but it’s considered quite close to the car’s production version.

In November, the Korean manufacturer unveiled a new restomod version of its 80s Grandeur Sedan. The car is part of the Heritage Series, a range of EV remakes built as part of a marketing campaign to promote the company’s new Ioniq brand.

In early December, as a tribute to Virgil Abloh after its untimely death, Mercedes Benz unveiled project MAYBACH, a collaboration with the late fashion designer and creative director. The cooperative project resulted in a dreamy off-road Maybach concept car, designed to “inspire the next generation, and forever question the status quo”.