STUTTGART: In a joint event with Swiftmile, a micromobility charging company, and Apcoa, Europe’s largest parking operator, the city of Sttutgart inaugurated vehicle charging stations at four Apcoa parking garages throughout the city. The event took place during the city’s ‘Mobility week’.
Stuttgart is striving to become a ‘showcase city’ by adapting parking infrastructure that can support a shift towards micromobility. This shift can replace an estimated six out of 10 car trips in German cities. The organisations are planning to expand to over 10 locations this autumn.
Apcoa called the partnership with the city and Swiftmile as a founding element of its new initiative called ‘Urban Hubs’. This initiative reimagines urban parking spaces as technology forward ecosystems for electrification, multimodal travel, and last mile logistics. Colin Roche, CEO of Swiftmile, commented that with emerging opportunities around the globe to repurpose car parking infrastructure for the new era of urban transport, Swiftmile is honoured to partner with Apcoa to lead this trend in Germany. He said that they are aiming to grow sustainable modeshare in Stuttgart with these strategically-placed Swiftmile stations.
The first user of these charging stations will be German micromobility operator Tier, who will use them to directly recharge its local fleet of 1500 e-scooters in order to allow seamless multimodal travel for Apcoa parking patrons. This partnership might also support charging needs of Tier’s e-bike and e-moped fleet in the future.