“India needs to have a minus 10-year quote. Something that is in the future and that allows India to take the lead into the future,” declared Hakan Lutz, CEO & Founder, Luvly AB, an Urban Mobility Visionary looking to transform the way we move and dedicated to sustainable transportation. He issued this challenge while speaking at a recent event in India, where politicians and industrialists had been boasting that “this is India’s time” to lead the world.
Lutz has devoted the past 20 years to reimagining cars for a more sustainable future. He recognized that while cars provide unparalleled flexibility and power, most of the time we use them to transport “1.2 or 1.5 people short distances within the same thing at slow speeds.” This represents an enormous “waste” of resources, he argued.
So 17 years ago, Hakan assembled a team of top engineers to create a 250 kilo vehicle that could provide the same utility at a fraction of the environmental cost. But the futuristic prototype was far too expensive for mass adoption. “Change needs to happen fast,” Kandels emphasized, and products must be “affordable to the masses” to drive that change.
After going “back to the drawing board,” Lutz has unveiled Luvly’s solution for sustainable personal transport: a patented vehicle which he described as “safe, sustainable and affordable.” It’s designed specifically for short urban trips, making optimal use of its limited capacity in contrast to the excessive power of most passenger vehicles.
While politicians look to the past for inspiration, Hakan argues that India must embrace an ambitious future-focused vision to lead in sustainable innovation. “We cannot repeat the past,” he warned. “We need to create the future.” Luvly aims to manifest that future, providing “the same services as a car in the city’s circumstance” but with a “super-efficient vehicle.”
With the world finally ready for alternatives to the traditional car, Hakan believes the time is right for India to surpass expectations and build technologies “that allow India to take the lead into the future.” Lutz’s radical vision for personalized mini-mobility could power that future.
Lutz’s radical vision for the future of transportation at ET NOW GBS 2024
