During Friday’s roundtable, opinions, studies, experiences, and specific programmes on the future of mobility were gathered among needs, urban limits, combined strategies, and future projects. Discussions were held on how to sustainably improve the vitality of historic cities such as Tuscany, which characterise Italy in a distinctive way. “The experience of Florence speaks for itself: the tram is essential for the daily life of cities, changing and improving them,” said Florence Mayor Dario Nardella.

The Regional Councillor for Mobility Stefano Baccelli, the Mayor of Florence Dario Nardella and the “City Manager” of Florence Giacomo Parenti, together with Didier Pfleger (CEO of Škoda Group), Olesea Lachi and industry expert Giovanni Mantovani, discussed the systemic vision of urban mobility and hypotheses for its evolution thanks to trams. The discussion highlighted the weaknesses of areas with a medieval/renaissance urban layout, such as Florence, and then revealed some development plans to show what the city of the future could look like using the latest technologies, such as those of Škoda Group.

Thus, mobility and road system solutions that guarantee the best sustainability, liveability and safety for citizens are proposed. The tram route appears to be a throwback to the past, but instead is a modern and efficient infrastructure and a symbolic example of virtual mobility. In the city of the future, according to Škoda Group, the tram is self-driving and runs completely safely thanks to the latest technology. Soon, battery-powered vehicles that are not only environmentally friendly and sustainable, but also able to move more quickly in historic centres with narrow streets, will be more common in cities. After all, the Tuscan capital has to reckon with the duo of beauty/sustainability, as it is a UNESCO heritage site and has recently been shortlisted for the nine Italian capitals that aim to be ‘zero-emission’ or climate neutral by 2030.

In Italy, Škoda Group will focus its attention on train transport and rolling stock for urban transport. It will offer its partners a comprehensive solution – from the manufacture of individual components to the delivery of complete vehicles and their subsequent maintenance. By making a similar decision in the past, Škoda Group has successfully entered the German or Finnish market, which has enabled it to be more within reach of its clients and to develop its business in these areas in a fundamental way.

Škoda Group has already worked on several orders for Italian customers in the past. Its trolleybuses can be seen in Bologna or Cagliari, where the Group has also supplied trams. Passengers can take electric units for a ride in Domodossola. Italy is thus one of the fifty countries where Škoda has delivered its products.