Citizens have a say in the German Mobility Award. Every year, a member of the public is given a place on the jury. After Nuri Köse last year, we are delighted that Julia Riethmüller will be helping to decide on the entries for the German Mobility Award 2023. The mother of three from Osnabrück is fascinated by mobility in both her private and professional life. As Head of Marketing and Sales at e-mobilio, she works on the transformation of drive technologies. We spoke to her about the challenges in the transport sector, her vision, what mobility looks like on her doorstep and what motivated her to apply for the jury.
What is your relationship with mobility – professional or personal?
Over the past seven years, I have been able to experience the changes in powertrain technology and the associated challenges for the automotive industry at two large car dealership groups. My passion and fascination for change and its potential to accelerate processes and create solutions led me to join e-mobilio this year. Our drive is to open up all the opportunities offered by the e-mobility ecosystem to our customers, so that they can realise the full potential in terms of value creation. Only if this concept is successfully implemented will electromobility become a sustainable drive technology.
In my private life, I experience the many challenges of sustainable mobility, and thus the mobility of the future, in our family situation and in our environment.
What does mobility look like on your doorstep?
We live in Osnabrück, a city with around 167,000 inhabitants. Osnabrück is already very innovative in the field of sustainable mobility and has a modern setup thanks to its public utilities. For example, its fleet already includes many electric cars and buses, e-scooters and pedelecs. But they want to do more and are working with the city of Osnabrück, for example, to convert public transport to electric vehicles and expand car-sharing services. Digitalisation is also playing an important role.
However, more needs to be done to reduce private transport. I am curious to see what other projects and measures will be implemented in the future.
What developments are you particularly interested in or looking forward to for the mobility of the future?
I’ve been interested in alternative drive technologies for some time. I am looking forward to seeing what a turnaround in drive technologies could look like, because I am convinced that the benefits of electric drive technologies have not yet been fully exploited.
I’m also interested in what our world will look like as more and more people move to cities. According to Statista, 78.6 percent of people in Germany are expected to live in cities. How will this higher density of people affect the way we move around? What role will intelligent mobility platforms play in this new world?
So much is happening in the field of mobility at the moment: as users, we are directly involved in developments, for example in the field of artificial intelligence. My daughter studies in Erfurt, so I follow the work of the Bauhaus.MobilityLab in Erfurt. The project is working with the city to develop various AI-based applications that we encounter in everyday life. For example, traffic lights that react to the volume of traffic. In the future, we will certainly come across more and more of these “small” innovations in everyday life.
What motivated you to apply for the jury of the German Mobility Award?
The opportunity to get to know, support and promote great and exciting projects in the field of future mobility.
What perspective does your participation in the jury bring to the decision on the projects?
I work in the field of automobility, so I bring a perspective from the car dealer and manufacturer side. In my personal life, I am a mother of three children aged 10, 17 and 19. As a mother and a citizen, I represent the perspective of people who need to be able to travel flexibly and quickly in their private and professional lives, but who also want to move in a sustainable way.
What do you expect from being a member of the jury?
In addition to gaining new insights into the future of mobility, I expect to gain exciting new impulses, including for our business model, and above all to meet people with innovative ideas and approaches. I’m really looking forward to the dialogue!
