"Green tires" reduce the fuel consumption of vehicles in urban traffic by up to seven percent (on average by 4.1 percent) and can save fleet operators thousands of euros in costs each year. In addition, these high-performance tires significantly reduce the CO2 emissions of vehicles compared to standard tires. These are the results of a joint tire test carried out by LANXESS, the world's leading manufacturer of synthetic high-performance rubbers for the tire industry, together with energy supplier RheinEnergie. RheinEnergie has therefore decided to gradually convert its vehicle fleet to "green tires". Initially, around 130 vehicles will be retrofitted as part of the usual wear change. For half a year, under real conditions, the fuel consumption of six identical RheinEnergie service vehicles in Cologne and the surrounding area was compared with both "green tires" and standard tires, thus determining the potential for savings. The vehicles with a weight of around two tons had comparable areas of application in the city of Cologne and the surrounding area during the test period. Driver, load weight and tank operations were identical for the vehicles. Over the entire test period, all six vehicles together covered a distance of around 37,000 kilometers. The result: The maximum fuel saving was 6.96 percent and a lower CO2 emission of up to 155 kilograms per 10,000 kilometers.

KVB cycle hire Smart mobility   Smart mobility is climate-friendly, sustainable, space-saving and networked. It relies on diversity and multimodality. The resident of a smart city does not remain loyal to one mode of transport. The result is a mobility patchwork that is tailored to the individual circumstances and that can be configured quickly and easily at any time. Energy-efficient and space-saving mobility has priority here. "Sharing" is smart! The sharing of things and information already establishes itself under the term "sharing economy" and places the function before the property, in order to use existing resources more efficiently. Smart mobility in urban areas is therefore primarily a matter of sharing a networked mobility offer from buses, trains, bicycles and cars. Smart mobility is not just a technological task. Especially in the inner cities, walking and cycling will provide space for quality of life and urban development through active mobility. This is where the bicycle rental system of the Cologne Transport Company (KVB) comes in by closing a gap in the combination of environmentally conscious and mobility-active mobility. The bicycle rental system of KVB stands for an open architecture. It is therefore not a system with only fixed station terminals after the well-known role models from other major cities, because a template for all cases, the complex events of a city can consider insufficient. The system offers users fully flexible rental and return in the street, but also stationary station terminals depending on the available options and needs. The rental terminals cover the entire span between conventional stations and purely virtual stations.  

Cycling is active climate protection and pollutes cities much less than the rest of the road. With this in mind, the company has developed and offers cyclists from all over Germany the opportunity with the help of the Radbonus app to receive financial rewards from kilometers driven by countless partners such as health insurances, employers, online shops and many more. The company, which has been operating since October 2015, would like to reward and acknowledge the valuable contribution every single cyclist makes to the environment and to climate protection. " Cyclists are heroes of everyday life for me,"Radbonus founder and CEO Nora Grazzini comments. Born in Cologne, she describes herself as a passionate cyclist and believes in making the world a whole lot better with her business idea. After a distance of 50 kilometers, the first rewards can be erradelt.

The DIGINET-PS research project involves the development and implementation of a connected urban infrastructure test field along a stretch of Straße des 17. Juni between Ernst-Reuter Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, designed to advance and validate automated and autonomous driving and its broad range of individual areas under real-life traffic circumstances. The test infrastructure is intended to provide central, regional and supra-regional companies and R&D institutes with the opportunity to field test automated driving within an authentic urban setting. This will establish Germany’s first pilot project to build a digital test field for automated driving in highly complex traffic situations. DIGINET-PS will contribute to implementing Berlin’s smart city strategy in the area of mobility and will also support the state’s Digital Agenda.

The ELEKTRA research project seeks to develop an energy-efficient, hybrid-powered inland push boat. The project will demonstrate hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in combination with accumulators on inland waterway vessels in order to test the technology under operating conditions. Focus AreasElectric heavy-cargo shipsBZ drive

The research project eMobility-Scout deals with the conceptualization, implementation and testing of a cloud-based IT solution for the operation of electric vehicles and for sharing charging infrastructures among different businesses. In doing so, eMobility-Scout is considering the interest shown by many companies and institutions for simple and smart integration of electric vehicles into their fleets. Solutions for diverse areas of application in commercial mobility are being developed and tested, while taking logistical, economic and ecological aspects into account. Experienced project partners and affiliates, as well as renowned end users, are contributing extensive knowledge to the project. The results of the research project for IKT EM III should also gain substantial recognition in the public sphere.