You’ve seen the i3, right? When you first saw it, did you blurt out, “What’s the world coming to?” That’s a question that perhaps inspired a sold-out Movin’ On Conference by Michelin held last week in Montreal, bringing thousands of industry and thought leaders together over three days to listen, discuss, and collaborate around sustainable mobility.
For many of us, sustainable mobility might mean how long we can hold speed on a straightaway; for many others, the phrase invokes fear of taking our fun away—autonomous vehicles, big brother watching our every pedal press, or even taking our cars away entirely. But more than 3,500 attendees at the Movin’ On Conference by Michelin came to understand that sustainable mobility means how to evolve, how to continue to be mobile, but to do so sustainably. Michelin CEO Jean-Dominque Senard said it best—in fantastic English and French—at the outset: “We refuse to choose between safety and energy efficiency,” Senard said. “We must offer a complete solution, without compromises.”
The attendees spent the three days canvassing a creatively arranged facility, highlighted by a glass-walled interview room (the “aquarium”) and suites made from stacked shipping containers and a literal big-top tent as the main speaking stage.
All automotive enthusiasts, they certainly were not. But we enthusiasts, don’t we want our cars to be—well, sustainable? Ironically, many of us hardly drive our cars for fear of putting miles on them. We want our cars to be around later, and we want them to work. Well, take that to the next level, looking at the macro level: the environment, technology, society, politics—and yes, performance. Let’s have these machines and resources and functionality around later, please. That was the Movin’ On conference.
And moving, it was. As attendees arrived from their shuttles, bikes, and ride-shares, they walked through rows of electrified and hybrid cars. While many manufacturers were present at the Movin’ On conference, BMW was front and center right from the beginning, with hybrids and “electrified” cars represented by an i3, two i8’s, a 740Le, and an eDrive X5.
Then, as they entered the facility, visitors were greeted by the fantastic Green GT—the world’s first hydrogen-electric race car. It’s a 2,700-pound Formula 1-style car driven 100% by its innovative power plant producing 544 horsepower and excreting only air and water from the exhaust.
Then, farther into the facility, walking through the Innovation Village, you’d have to look both ways as traditional and electric bikes careened by on makeshift bike paths. Looking up revealed models of planes and other hybrid, experimental transportation—and even a floating lab.
The army of BMWs was part of the event’s Ride & Drive program. It allowed participants to interact, discover, and test prototypes and existing vehicles on open public roads for ten-minute drives through the streets of Montreal. This enhanced the theme of the conference; it wasn’t just recognizing that there is an issue ahead of us, but it was immersing participants in challenging the status quo to see what might and might not work.
Highlights included presentations from more than 30 business and thought leaders from the likes of Delta Airlines, GM, Rinnspeed, BMW (of course!), and even Yellowstone National Park. Each addressed challenges, advancements, and solutions, and possible economic, political, and societal limitations in their respective industries, businesses, and organizations.
If you were still concerned that this event hosted merely a bunch of tree-huggers whose sole mission was to un-fun our vehicles, hearing Rinnspeed founder Frank Rinderknecht speak would clear that up. Rinnspeed has brought to market its own Porsches, Bugattis, Mercedes, Nissans, and more—but now includes in its core business “visionary mobility concepts, innovative drives, sustainability,” and more. Rinderknecht said specifically at the conference that he sees “mobility as a service, the Netflix of transportation.” As Jackje Jouret’s article on BMW’s ReachNow program in the March issue of Roundel indicates, this prediction already has legs.
BMW’s Ursala Mathar, Vice President of Sustainability and Environmental Protection—the title alone should confirm that BMW is aligned with the importance of these developments—emphasized BMW’s circular economic approach: development, production, supply chain, and recycling. She also emphasized that it is important to recognize what society expects, understand societal challenges, and determine whether BMW can achieve what is expected of it. Mathar concluded by pointing out that BMW hit its first 100 years by recognizing trends and developments, and will shape its next 100 years by also looking at sustainability.
Not surprisingly, although Michelin took a tempered, passive approach to leveraging its management and hosting of the entire event, the tire company presented one of the highlights. The Michelin Vision Concept is a revolutionary tire-and-wheel combination that is airless; made of recycled and organic materials; interconnected to the vehicle, user, road, and climate; and has a changeable, on-demand tread pattern. Michelin says that it is “a mobility solution that combines a unique tire, services, and materials, is inspired by nature, is perfectly integrated into the framework of a circular economy, and embodies the Group’s vision of the sustainable mobility of the future.”
Michelin showed a video that showed future motorists changing their tread patterns on demand to adapt to what ever weather the integrated navigation system anticipates, then using new infrastructure to spend a few minutes as a kiosk prints new tread before continuing their driving. How might this affect us? How are those winter wheels and tires doing right now (sunbelt residents need not reply)? Won’t need ’em. Reprint them for summer driving as the snow melts, and print them again as winter arrives.
How about those track days? Driving to the track with two wheels in the back seats, one in the truck, and one in the passenger seat? Won’t need ’em. Arrive at the track, program optimal compound for the track surface and conditions, print and race. Finished racing? Reprint your street tread and head home, with the trophy on the front seat instead of a slick.
Michelin’s technical and scientific communication director, Cyrille Roget, explains it in more detail (and with an extremely cool accent) in this short video from the Movin’ On Conference.
As Ursala Mathar pointed out, we’ve seen incredible advancement in mobility over BMW’s first hundred years. We’re still enjoying our Ultimate Driving Machines, now with the industry producing more horsepower and better mileage (your results may vary), albeit with fewer manual shifts now on sale than many of us would like. Whatever the next 100 years might present, it’s good to know that there are plenty of leaders looking for not just sustainable mobility, but to sustain mobility.—Kyle van Hoften
