Corona Proving a Catalyst for Smart Cities

• Smart city projects in key sectors
• Cash injection to push smart cities
• E-mobility and smart building push
• Multimodal transport and mobility solutions
• Public procurement and e-government
• Growing investment opportunities for foreign companies

Smart city projects in key sectors

Within Germany there is no single “smart city” model, rather there are individual projects in various key sectors including the energy, digital economy, mobility, logistics, construction, health, and security sectors. In city administrations, digital offers and home office work are not yet standard, but more and more German cities understand the importance of offering smart digital services in order to become more resilient and attractive.

Cash injection to push smart cities

In early September, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) announced the 32 winners of the second phase of the biggest German Smart City funding program. With its second coronavirus stimulus package, Germany is making an additional EUR 500 million available for smart cities and the safeguarding of digital initiatives initiated in recent years. In total, Germany is now investing EUR 1,250 billion to advance the development and implementation of urban technologies.

E-mobility and smart building push

Reduced inner-city traffic levels during the first corona wave significantly reduced emissions and noise. These positive environmental effects led to a better quality of life – especially in traffic-plagued city centers – and provided an additional boost to sustainable electric mobility. It is expected that Germany will have to install a million new charging stations by 2030. The housing sector also plays a central role here, as charging infrastructure will be a natural component of future smart building due to often narrow urban development levels.

Multimodal transport and mobility solutions

Mobility in German cities was severely restricted by the coronavirus crisis. Public transport has been only available to a limited extent. Innovative mobility service providers started to develop new cooperations with local authorities, public transport providers, Deutsche Bahn, and taxi service providers to offer innovative multimodal mobility services such as bundling taxis, rental cars, e-scooters and bike sharing in one app. In future, more and more innovative mobility apps will enable people to move around safely and reliably by using mobile digital applications.

Public procurement and e-government

Public procurement plays an important role in the crisis - short-term needs for ICT services must be met quickly. Public administrations started to accelerate the procurement processes in order to meet the need for short-term digital solutions. Remote working already found its way into administration, digital communication was expanded, and administrative procedures were replaced as best as possible by digital services in order to enable social distancing.

Growing investment opportunities for foreign companies

Most investments in smart city projects in the coming years will take place in Europe. The affected industries will grow accordingly in the medium to long term. Germany is very well positioned to develop such approaches. This offers significant potential for foreign companies interested in doing business in Germany. Germany Trade & Invest networks with all of the relevant German smart city players as the first point of contact to promote Germany as a smart city location for companies from all industry sectors.

Useful Links:

• Digital Economy
• Building Industry Landscape
• Energy Efficiency in Buildings
• Electric Vehicles Charging Infrastructure
• Environmental Technologies