Cities deploying micromobility could lower Europe’s CO₂ emissions and create up to a million jobs by 2030, according to a report by Dutch firm EIT InnoEnergy.

The report extrapolated micromobility behaviour in Munich across more than 100 European cities and combined it with various, validated scenarios to create projections of the impact of a systemic electric, shared and connected micromobility rollout by 2030.

Looking at the status quo, the report identifies major hurdles around micromobility adoption such as the current limitations on vehicle types, making them unfit to transport groceries, pick up children from school or accommodate parcel deliveries. In addition, short vehicle lifespans, high operational costs, in regard to charging and relocation, and lack of integration into European cities’ transport systems is hampering uptake.

In consequence, micromobility today accounts for less than 0,1% of all trips within cities.

“The initial rollout of the first generation of micromobility fleets was hastily done, with little thought put into how to best fit them into a larger mobility system,” said report author Jennifer Dungs from sustainable energy firm EIT InnoEnergy. “As a result, the vehicles did little to solve existing challenges such as air pollution, traffic jams, high noise levels or increasingly crowded urban centres. In fact, this has created new problems that have hurt the perception and the business case surrounding micromobility.”

To overcome those hurdles, EIT InnoEnergy recommends a systemic and sustainable multi-stakeholder approach. This includes a shift to higher quality components and improved serviceability – particularly motors and batteries – more local manufacturing, consequent recycling, a focus on developing and using purpose-built vehicles, leveraging analytics platforms for relocation and charging, and implementing more favourable regulations for micromobility fleets.

In addition to creating almost a million direct and indirect jobs (990,000), this approach could lower CO₂ emissions by more than 30m tons and save up to 127TWh of energy consumption per year, the equivalent of around 12.5% of Germany’s energy sector’s CO₂ emissions in 2019, and about 23% of Germany’s transport sector’s energy consumption in 2018.

The report estimates a €111bn increase in GDP could be realised as a result of almost one billion (999 million) person hours saved per year due to decreased congestion – more than the combined GDPs of Malta, Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, 48,000ha of inner-city land could be freed up, equivalent to more than four times the total area of Paris.

“We need to press the reset button if we want micromobility to play an outsized role in the much-needed redesign of our cities and their transport systems,” said Dungs. “Leveraging innovations like purpose-built vehicles or battery swapping stations is one part. Another one is to establish platforms enabling a structural exchange between cities and providers to help guide the process. Looking at the potential benefits for urban life quality, the environment and our economy, we should all have a vested interest to support and accelerate this transition.”