Future Fleet - Mobility of the Future

The transition to a sustainable and eco-friendly form of mobility is one of the big challenges of our time. The Future Fleet project examines the use of electric vehicles as company cars. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

The Future Fleet is heading back to the garage. Covering over 100,000 kms via electric power, SAP employees explored the mobility of tomorrow. SAP and its project partners wanted to examine the potential of e-mobility on a company-wide scale by integrating electric vehicles into SAP's car fleet. German electric utility MVV Energie installed the required charging infrastructure, while SAP provided a software prototype for the management of electric car fleets. Academic partners accompanied the project to find out more about environmental benefits, user acceptance and use of the cars. These issues were evaluated through comprehensive field tests and statistical analyses carried out by the research partners Oeko-Institut, the Institute for Social Ecological Research (ISOE), and the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences.

The pilot lasted from February - September 2011. Five-hundred SAP employees, out of over 1,400 applicants, were given the chance to get behind the wheel of 27 electric cars for their daily driving needs. The cars were charged exclusively with renewable energy provided ba MVV Energie at 36 stations at SAP locations in Walldorf, St. Leon-Rot, Karlsruhe and Bensheim or simply via a common electrical outlet. The project demonstrated that successful e-mobility is not only about the vehicle machinery and infrastructure; IT also plays a key role. SAP Research developed a software prototype for the smart management of company car fleets that fully meets the user's needs. Reserving, charging, and billing are handled in an easy and convenient way. Before booking a particular car, the software even evaluates the charge levels of available vehicles to find one that meets the required range.

Further information can be found here: www.futurefleet.de (German only)
04.04.2011: Deutsche Welle Video: SAP explores e-mobility
01.03.2011: Rethinking the car: IT paves the way for future transportation solutions
Press Release: SAP Inaugurates Electric Car Fleet in Germany
SAP.info: SAP Trials Eco-Friendly Company Cars

SAP-TV: Video Future Fleet (English version)