[IPE4] E-mobility and business synergy in Slovenia

If you are looking for business cooperation or just using services of electromobility, we have it.

Avant2Go and Podkrižnik companies were introduced in Bled, June 12th 2019, before the participants tested all the e-vehicles presented: e-car, e-bikes and e-boat.

Tomaž Kogoj, operations and logistics manager of Avant2Go car sharing system, presented the company and its operation of the car sharing system. The company is 16 years old, has more than 100 employees (in Slovenia and Croatia) and is one of the first companies in Slovenia that started offering electric vehicles for rental and first company of car sharing system in Slovenia. They offer 100% electric car sharing. They are a leading provider of electric and connected mobility in the region and operate with 3000 vehicles (classic and electric).

“Our vision is to change the mobility,” said Kogoj. Besides car sharing their service is also rent a car and fleet management services. They support five pillars of electric car sharing: parking spaces, education, charging infrastructure, technology and 100 % electric vehicles and can offer five different models of cars in AVANT2GO fleet. 

The main goal of the Company, explained Kogoj is that everybody can use car sharing - how to achieve that all levels of society will be able to use their services (individual level, company level, municipality level and state level)? Mr. Kogoj explained how their car sharing services using Mobile application work.

“Our services are very easy to use. You unlock the vehicle with Mobile application; you don’t need any key or cards. When you are done with the driving, you leave the car in the parking place, lock the car and end the rental. Your cost for the driving is taken from your credit card and for your rental you get the invoice,” explained Kogoj.

 Andrej Zalokar from studio OREH, a facilitator of e-biking in the region and a member of Slovenian biking association presented e-bike sharing system in Gorenjska region. “We are focusing on the development of smart infrastructure and innovative solutions. The e-bike use among other, contributes to climate change, health, local economy - tourism,” emphasized Zalokar. He gave precise numbers of the bikes and of bikes sharing systems in Gorenjska. All together they are 3 bike sharing locations (Jesenice, Bled and Kranj), with total 33 bike sharing stations, 110 classic bikes and 72 e-bikes, some also available for free. In the city municipality of Kranj average daily use is 121 users for all stations and by Zalokar, is very cheap for renting. On the other hand, Zalokar said: “maintaining of the system is quite expensive. For each bike the costs are approximately 1.500 EUR per year and for the whole system they spend 120.000 EUR per year.”

There are bike rental services in main touristic resorts like in Bled, Bohinj and Kranjska Gora, but e-bike renting is the most popular in Kranjska Gora.

 “E-bike sharing network in Gorenjska region will consist of complementary charging solutions: e-bike charges for topping up trip destinations, e-bike e-charging managed by private enterprise for employees and cargo bikes; and e-bike charging lockers at hotels, guest houses, restaurants, museums,” concluded Zalokar.

Simon Kulovec, Director of R&D at Podkrižnik Group presented e-boating development. First, he explained the structure of the Group where one Company is in Slovenia (Podkrižnik, Ltd) and another one is in Germany (Ora drive). The main business of both companies is the development and production of drive components and drive systems. Together they are group of 300 people. The company was established in 1987 with the production of unique weapons and today the main product are drive components (metal, plastic, hybrid), drive systems, gearbox mechanisms and end-products (in e-mobility, robotics industry). Kulovec explained the main areas of research and development which are: development and industrialization of drive systems for known partners, development of new gear system solutions, and research and testing of new gears, gear geometries and intelligent gearboxes. The goal of the company is to develop and produce best performing drive systems.

 The most interesting topic for this event was their electro mobility program: they have their own trade-mark E’DYN, drive systems for small electrical boats. Main focus is the electric systems. E’DYN was established in 2019, they cooperate with different companies, institutes, faculties (also abroad) for knowledge exchange. Kulovec stated the main advantages in comparison with competitors: more motor power, less weight, better motor position – easier maintenance, bigger battery capacity, internal test benches, field tests and possible usage of standard propellers. He concluded with the project overview: the current number of motors is 23, the development investments are around 2,5 million EUR and a production plan from 2020 on is around 300 propulsion systems per year.