– By Caroline Falls (on location in Italy) –
Italian Fleet Managers and transport companies are about to get a treat (and you can get it too) — a new major expo and conference devoted to electric mobility set in a 16th century fort in Florence.
The expo, which will have about 100 exhibitors, will be free to attend, so if you’re planning a trip to Italy any time soon, you might like to add this to your itinerary: ExpoMove, April 9-12, at Fortezza da Basso (80,000 square metres), in the historic heart of the medieval Tuscan city.
The first day of the conference will unveil 100 stories of electric mobility in Italy. The stories were gathered by electricity group ENEL and Symbola, an organisation that promotes a model of economic development which is mindful of Italian culture and tradition. Other days are devoted to roundtables and workshops on political developments pertaining to electric vehicles and infrastructure, particularly public transport and local government fleets. A feature of the second day will be a case study of one Italian city’s path to electrify its tram network.
Like Australia’s IPWEA fleet conference, ExpoMove is likely to be attended by a lot of local government Fleet Managers faced with the challenge of reorganising their fleets to meet sustainability goals. The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia’s third annual fleet management conference and exhibition is being held March 25-27 in Brisbane (see link here for IPWEA Fleet Conference 2019).
The last day of ExpoMove will feature conference sessions on the sharing economy, particularly mobility sharing.
Antonio Ferro, spokesperson for the event organisation, told Fleet Auto News, they would welcome any Australian participants but that they hadn’t signed any up for the exposition at the time of writing this article.
Italy, like Australia, and the rest of the world, is grappling with rapidly changing mobility issues. Like other European countries, Italy, though, is on board politically, having introduced favourable taxation measures to help the transport world convert to environmentally friendly modes. In December, the national government announced electric car incentives of up to 6,000 Euros (A$9,500) for vehicles priced no more than 50,000 Euros (A$80,000) would apply from March 1, 2019. It also introduced tax deductions for the purchase and installation of charging systems.
Among exhibitors at ExpoMove, expected to number about 100, will be the event’s key sponsor Enel. Others yet to be named include European carmakers, ride-share app providers, fleet management companies, and EV charging station makers.
The schedule of partners and sponsors demonstrates the importance of the event. The country’s national public broadcaster RAI is the event’s media partner. Others include the national environment ministry Ministero dell’Ambient; Ulitalia, a federation of Italian infrastructure providers; ANCI, the association of Italian local government; and Asstra, an Italian association of companies involved in public transport.
For more information about the event, and how to get to it, follow the link expomove.it and use the pop-up to get it translated into English or other language.
