Photo: NÜWIEL
Freight transportation in urban areas accounts for up to 21% of all CO2 emissions, while it is also responsible for noise emissions and traffic congestion. Germany’s NÜWIEL, a finalist of this year’s clim@ competition for startups organized by the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), has a solution.
NÜWIEL is a tech startup from Hamburg founded by Natalia Tomiyama, Fahad Khan, and Sandro Rabbiosi with a vision to free cities from unnecessary car use, noise, and air pollution. To achieve this, NÜWIEL developed an electrically powered bike trailer for cargo transportation in urban areas.
Freight transportation responsible for 21% of all CO2 emissions
With urbanization and increasing digitalization, more people will be living in cities and more things will be ordered online and delivered to our homes. Today, urban freight mobility already accounts for up to 21% of all CO2 emissions.
This is not only significantly contributing to climate change, but is also negatively affecting public health, with up to 70% of carcinogenic and other dangerous air pollution caused by traffic emissions.
Intelligent electric bike trailer
NÜWIEL is addressing the need for safe and convenient sustainable mobility solutions in urban areas. The startup has developed an intelligent electric bike trailer – the patented technology enables the trailer to accelerate, decelerate, and brake automatically with the bike. A cyclist doesn’t have to make any additional effort and yet can carry 150kg without noticing it. The trailer can be connected to any bike, electric bike, and even a cargo-bike within a second. Disconnected from a bike, it can be used as an electric handcart indoors and in pedestrian areas.
The trailer has been successfully tested by various package delivery companies, as well as with Europe’s first urban IKEA store in Hamburg.
Helping achieve the UN SDGs G11, G13, and G3
The European Commission has set a goal to achieve CO2 free city logistics in major urban centers by 2030. NÜWIEL aims to contribute to the achievement of this goal by offering market-ready and scalable clean mobility solutions.
The startup’s ultimate goal is to reduce traffic congestion by 30% and air pollution by 40%, to decrease number of people suffering from noise pollution by 10%, and to improve the quality of life for many people in the EU and worldwide.
NÜWIEL directly contributes to achieving the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Sustainable Cities and Communities (G11), Climate Action (G13), and Good Health and Well-Being (G3).
Today NÜWIEL works with logistics and retail companies, while it also seeks to make the NÜWIEL-trailer accessible to private users in the future. This is particularly important in view of the fact that even one NÜWIEL-trailer running 72km a day substitutes 6,300 km of car use and results in avoiding up to 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Impact
The NÜWIEL-trailer enables package delivery companies and retailers, as well as private users, to move anything by bike and contributes to more sustainable and resilient cities.
Natalia Tomiyama, co-founder of NÜWIEL
We are extremely grateful to the Green for Growth Fund and Finance in Motion for raising awareness on climate change and recognizing NÜWIEL as one of the solutions to mitigate it.
We won third place at the clim@ competition entered by 260 startups from around the world. Most importantly, the competition gave us an opportunity to present our solution to an international audience, get to know 19 outstanding startups fighting climate change, and expand our network of potential partners to the Middle East and Africa.
We wish all the other startups the best of luck in their endeavors and thank the organizers, sponsors and pitch trainers of the first clim@ competition.
Team info
NÜWIEL was founded in 2016 by Fahad Khan, Natalia Tomiyama, and Sandro Rabbiosi. NÜWIEL is based in Hamburg, Germany and currently employs 10 individuals from 7 different countries with diverse competencies and backgrounds.
NÜWIEL is starting a pilot production this year and is currently raising funds to launch mass production.
Be the first one to comment on this article.