Alef Arendsen introduced electrical mobility to the TEDxAmsterdam crowd last year in a playful talk, where he called upon our egos to take good care of ourselves, because then the world will follow. But, how does that make sense: you first, then the world?
“Compromise kills desire”, is what Alef stated in his talk, and something he still agrees with. “As an entrepreneur, I’m used to fixing my own problems first, and when that works, I can fix other people’s problems, too.”
One of the problems Alef stumbled upon in his life was: how to drive an electrical car. Since the Dutch infrastructure of roads, gas stations and car repair is designed around a traditional car, it takes some steps to make electrical driving easy and accessible. “That’s what The New Motion does – we facilitate the seamless integration of electrical cars in The Netherlands. After TEDxAmsterdam we started rolling out the Nissan Leaf, which comes with a service package to make electrical driving not only clean, but also comfortable.” But Alef doesn’t see the electrical car as an end in itself. Driving on electricity is just part of transforming the way we organize mobility in The Netherlands. “It’s actually about three things: how can we realize making sustainable mileage, how can we reduce our overall kilometers and how can we design smart kilometers. Electrical mobility is about cleaning current modes of transport, whereas reducing our overall transport can be reduced through, for instance, working from home. The last category is actually about increasing collaborative consumption”.
Collaborative consumption (explained here on TED by Rachel Botsman) is a new consumption paradigm that looks beyond individual consumer preferences and acknowledges that when half of the cars we acquire is going stand idle for 90% of their lifetime, we might need to rethink why we own cars in the first place. “The New Motion represents a movement that rethinks mobility. Personally, I find it difficult to live with such huge inefficiencies in a transport system, and electric cars are part of a change that is already set in motion.”
Follow-up Friday: Alef Arendsen
Alef actually practices what he preaches: he does not own a car. Instead he uses one from The New Motion’s fleet when he needs it, but admits to love his bike and public transport. Especially in a city like Amsterdam. Speaking at TEDxAmsterdam was an opportunity to share his vision with a crowd that’s open to ideas and supportive of positive change, whilst keeping a critical eye. “The New Motion is greatly inspired by the way TEDxAmsterdam is organized: as a community of committed individuals, free of conflicting interests, where a positive message resonates with everyone, and leads to visible change.” Thanks, Alef!
Alef asks you, as part of the TEDxCommunity, to rethink your modes of transportation, and whether ownership actually trumps your consumption needs, or whether there’s something out of balance there, too.
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