Now more than ever, there is a common understanding among citizens, politicians, and authorities that cities were built for people, yet are dominated by full-size cars.
当今社会,不论是市民、政客还是政府都发现了一个问题:城市本是为人而建的,如今却被各式各样的汽车充斥和支配着。
We all want our cities to provide us with a lifestyle such as green parks and coffee shops. We want to walk on pedestrian-friendly streets and breathe clean air.
每个人都希望城市能够为我们提供舒适惬意的生活,如绿荫遮天的公园和香气馥郁的咖啡馆。我们想要走在行人友好的街道上,并呼吸着清新无污染的空气。

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However, there is a huge gap between the so-called “romantic vision” of how mobility-friendly cities should look like versus what citizens recognize as clean and efficient mobility-friendly cities.
然而,所谓“浪漫愿景”中的汽车友好型城市与市民所认可的清洁高效的汽车友好型城市之间仍存在着巨大的差距。
Many worldwide city leaders share a romantic belief that cycling can remove cars from cities. For instance, Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris announced her plans for Paris to become a 100% cyclable city. On the one hand, this is amazing that finally there is an understanding that cars are taking our cities away from us. On the other hand, a lot of people see this as an injury to their freedom to move. This is mainly because many will not compromise their comfort and safety by using a bike or even a scooter. Research has shown that when riding scooters, you are more than 12 times more likely to have a severe accident than when driving a car. In addition, bicycles, bikes and scooters are not fit for every weather or can be used by every person such as elderly people. As for public transportation, even if there is a good public transportation backbone, some will not compromise their privacy, independence, and flexibility.
世界上许多城市管理者都有一个共同的浪漫构想,那就是让城市自行车出行取代汽车出行。例如,巴黎市长Anne Hidalgo就宣布她计划将巴黎变为一个100%可骑行的城市。一方面,意识到汽车正在不断侵占我们的城市的这一想法令人惊喜;但另一方面,许多人认为这样做将阻碍他们的出行自由。主要原因是许多人并不愿意牺牲舒适度和安全性去使用自行车甚至摩托车作为出行方式。研究表明,摩托车的严重事故率比汽车高出12倍以上。此外,自行车和摩托车并不适应所有天气情况,也不适合特定人群使用,例如老年人。至于公共交通,即使有良好的公共交通网络,也有人不愿意在私密性、独立性和灵活性方面做出妥协。
The good news is that lately we see the rise of a new sector – the minimobility, sometimes also referred to as microcars. McKinsey published at the end of last year that this segment is the missing link between cars and micromobility with a total addressable market of $100 billion annually. Bloomberg explained that the drive for electric minicars is advances in battery technologies and growing climate concerns.
好消息是,近来我们看到一个新领域的崛起——迷你汽车,也被称为微型汽车。麦肯锡在去年年底发布的报告中称,这是普通汽车和微型汽车之间连结的缺失,这一领域每年能够产生价值1000亿美元的市值。彭博社称电动迷你汽车的发展得益于电池技术的进步和对气候变化关心的不断加深。

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So, while city leaders globally are going romantic, startups are more consumer-oriented, sometimes evolving from understanding consumer pains. This together with the global trends of authorities banning cars from cities, and an overall understanding that the urban mobility paradigm is broken are just some of the factors that ignite to create attractive alternative solutions.
因此,当城市管理者沉浸在浪漫幻想时,初创企业则更多是以消费者为导向的,有时还要根据消费者的需求不断调整更新。这一现象和政府禁止汽车进入城市的全球趋势,再加上对城市移动范例已被打破的共识,组合成的因素激发了有吸引力的可替代方案的诞生。
We witness different players blooming in this field like the Swiss-based Microlino, Italian XEV, Israel’s City Transformers as well as Ligier, Aixam and Silence. Each brand brings its own uniqueness, value proposition and even business model.
我们见证了不同参与者在这一领域百花齐放,比如来自瑞士的Microlino、意大利的XEV、以色列的City Transformer以及Ligier, Aixam和Silence。每一个品牌都有自己的独特性、价值主张甚至商业模式。
With an Israeli innovation and origin, German engineering and flavors of Italy, City Transformer is the first ever urban EV that intelligently transforms its dimensions and riding behavior while driving, to meet the complex challenges of urban mobility. This vehicle has the smallest environmental and physical footprint, taking 75% less parking area compared to a regular vehicle.
把以色列的创新技术和起源历史,与德国的工程技术和意大利的设计风格相结合,City Transformer是有史以来第一辆能够在行驶过程中智能地改变自身体积和驾驶模式,以应对城市交通的复杂挑战的城市电动车。该车把对环境和空间的影响降到最低,与普通车辆相比可以减少75%对停车场面积的占用。

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With a predicted huge market opportunity, the Support of politicians around the world in reference to the mini-mobility sector will take this sector to the next level. The right political attention and understanding of the impact these solutions can have on the overall urban environment worldwide would lead to supporting regulation and financial incentives.
广阔的市场让世界各地的政客们都支持迷你汽车这一行业的发展。合适的政治关注与对这些解决方案能给全球整体城市环境带来怎样影响的认识,将促进法规扶持和财政激励。
Creating a coordinated approach of these start-up-stage companies with the right political ranks, in the form of a minicar coalition would probably be the right approach.
创造一个由具有正确政治定位且处于起步阶段的公司,以迷你汽车联盟的形式组成的协调方法或许是个正确思路。
For this reason City Transformer just recently launched the microcars coalition bringing a coordinated strategy and collective resource to enable a coordinated approach to campaigns and lobbying.
出于这个原因,City Transformer近来启动了微型汽车联盟,以协调战略和集体资源来保证推广方面的协调一致。

图片来源:pixabay.com
We believe that in the coming years, we are going to witness the end of the conquest of cities by full-size cars. Minimobility vehicles will play a significant role in this transition that will lead to better community life, better air, better sustainability, and better everything that makes a city a fun place to live.
我们相信未来几年,人们将见证常规体积汽车对城市的主宰日渐式微。而迷你汽车将在这一转变中发挥重要的作用,让社区生活更美好,呼吸的空气更清新,提升可持续性,让城市生活更有趣。
*Written by: Dr. Anat Bonshtien
作者:Anat Bonshtien博士
The writer is the VP of Business Development at "City Transformer" and the former Director of Israel’s Prime Minister’s Smart Mobility Initiative
作者简介:Anat Bonshtien博士是"City Transformer"商务拓展副总裁和负责以色列总理智能移动倡议的前主任。