Israel: Tel Aviv hosts the 7th edition of the Smart Mobility Summit 2019
Tel Aviv recently hosted the 7th edition of the Smart Mobility Summit, one of the leading and most popular international events on technological innovation applied to the sector of eco-sustainable mobility. The Summit was attended by almost 4,000 international delegates from 40 Countries.
Through the “Fuel choices & smart mobility initiative” and the “Smart Mobility Summit”, the Israeli Government aims to convert the Country into a “knowledge hub” for self-driving vehicles and alternative energy sources by supporting the development and application of advanced technologies. This year, the Summit was also attended by numerous Italian delegates representing the most important innovative businesses in mobility and energy such as Stmicroelectronics, FCA, CNH Industrial, Ducati, Italgas, as well as a delegation of the Production Activity Commission of the Region of Lombardy.
The two-day conference featured thematic workshops, round tables and seminars in which experts and representatives of large multinational corporations discussed about innovation, with a particular focus on the technologies applied to alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas, methanol and hydrogen, and on electric transport systems and self-driving vehicles.
The Ministry of Energy, represented at the Summit by Director General Udi Adiri, aims to replace all the private vehicles circulating in Israel with electric vehicles by 2030, investing in infrastructure and recharging stations and developing a structured system of tax relief measures capable of significantly boosting the number of electric vehicles circulating. The Israeli speakers included Aharon Aharon, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, the government agency that defines the policies and finances projects in the field of innovation, who focused on the instruments made available to foreign companies interested in opening research centres or in developing technologies with Israeli start-ups. One of these programmes is the MNCS (Multinational Companies Program) which aims to create industrial partnerships to stimulate foreign companies to perform part of their own research and development activities together with Israeli partners. Under this programme, the Innovation Authority supports the multinational corporation in the process to single out the Israeli technological innovations applicable to their own corporate business. The start-ups identified will receive financing from the Israel Innovation Authority while the multinational corporation commits to support the upscaling of the start-ups by including them in their own business activities, giving them access to global commercial and marketing corporate services.
As confirmed by the success of the conference, in the last few years the Israeli “autotech” sector has grown significantly and even if the Country does not have an automotive industry of its own, Israel hosts more than 200 research groups and approximately 2,000 entrepreneurs active in the sector.
