Graeme Maxton has been one of the leading strategy consultant for the global automobile industry. He is also climate change economist, author, former Secretary General of the Club of Rome.He shares his viewpoint here in this October 2023 article and update from a week back.
Graeme Maxton, Autopolis on the MobilityXS approach, 9 Feb, 2005
” You know, like any right thinking person, that I applaud your ideas as a constructive part of a debate which is sorely needed. Changing the ways we move people, making it safer and less polluting are urgent needs. In the developed world however there is a built in resistance to radical change.
This stems from two sources. First, governments are reluctant to make radical changes based on long term hypotheses over climate change or pollution. It is too much hassle for most of the people who are in power and who will be in the job for less than ten years to take on something that has a much longer term impact and which is likely to be unpopular.
It will be unpopular for the second reason. That 500 million conventional vehicles are
already used on the roads of the developed world. There are used selfishly by people who can do pretty much as they please and don’t want that to change.
The only thing that will modify this picture is not a sudden fit of goodwill or any long range thinking by politicians or concerned citizens, but oil. If there is a sudden oil problem – and I think there could be – then everything gets thrown in the melting pot.
Where your ideas have much more appeal to me is in places like India, China and other
newly-motorising countries where there is not a fully developed infrastructure, where oil imports are a problem and there is a flexibility of thinking and the vision to do it differently.”
Case 4: Pilot Project for MobilityXS model in India
Reference: Graeme Maxton, Sanjeev Lohia
Further, to Graeme’s advice, I made a presentation to the Urban Development ministry for piloting MobilityXS in India in Delhi NCR in a 2-phase program. (Refer attached presentationUT_24_March…)
Over a 2 year effort, the ministry incorporated my suggestions in the recently released “National Urban Transport Policy” for more clarity on its earlier stance to discourage private vehicle usage “but not ownership”. Both the draft and the final version are attached for reference. In the govt. document, you would also find many of the images that they borrowed from my presentation and image library. (Refer NUTP…)
My company TEN Systems was shortlisted for a tender on transport study of million plus cities in India. All the 3 members in the panel applauded our approach but said that as they could not award the project as the company did not meet the experience criteria. I have copied the mail to Mr. Sanjeev Lohia, Director – Urban Transport, Ministry of UD, Govt. of India to testify, as appropriate.
In a chicken and egg, till the ministry gave that in writing, none of the experienced players who were interested to bid showed interest in the new approach. TCS refused to bid in spite of my sincere efforts.
In short, after a gruelling effort, we made some headway even though it was too painfully slow and frustrating and still far away from business results.
Running out of funds for this self-funded start up and borrowing from near and dear ones, an opportunity came to pilot the project in Palam Vihar in Gurgaon. We organised a workshop to collect user feedback about the MobilityXS project – called PVT Paradise locally. This was reported by the national newspaper Hindustan Times in March ’06 (Refer Walki..like Europeans..) and details at http://www.mobilityxs.com/pragati/ .
The proposed pilot required the area developer, resident association to take actions such as – remove road width encroachment ( they have fenced parks outside their houses on area demarcated for pedestrian pavement) and to agree on and further move a proposal to enforce a speed limit of 30 kmph to the area traffic police ; a cordon entry charge of Rs. 20 and Rs. 30 per hour of stay; and provision for vehicle parking at the hub ( for shared use vehicles) and for private vehicles at the periphery. Some of ideas did not find immediate favor and needed marketing budget to convey the benefits of the trade-offs that we were asking users to make.
This was required to encourage particularly younger people to reach the hub on bicycle ( for others it was walk or electric rickshaw @ 20kmph).
The pilot project also got a commitment of funding of Rs. 25 lacs. from Central urban development ministry to be routed through state govt. (Refer attachment Letter..UDM..)
The project is yet to take off, primarily, due to lack of funds. The effort continues, thanks to the support from Mr. Avinash Chawla, one of the senior residents of the area.
It is possible with TCS and Mastek support to do the pilot project that sets the ground for worldwide opportunities as referred to in earlier mail.
Regards,
Chandra Vikash
Dear Mr Vikash,
Thank you for contacting us, providing your presentation and your kind words. As you may know we are great fans of Tata Auto and what it has achieved in the industry so far, in it being a catalyst for change. We feature the company in several areas of our book.
Your ideas are interesting, especially to a country like India where there is a less of a legacy-parc problem and where the costs of maintaining different sorts of fleets may make more sense than elsewhere. Oil availability is another issue we have discussed at length and believe to be a growing motivator in the push for radical change in the industry. We think a crisis will come much sooner than in 50 years. We also think that road-pricing is inevitable.
As for working with us on our development of a new model for the industry, we would of course be interested. We are looking for companies with whom we can work to push through new models.
Let us know how your paper goes and what you think of the book when it comes out in a month!
With best wishes
Graeme Maxton
From:chandra.vikash@tcs.com
To:gpmaxton@autopolis.com
Cc:jwormald@autopolis.com ; jyoti.srivastava@tcs.com
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 2:04 PM
Subject: Time for a model change – Horses for Courses
Dear Mr. Maxton,
Dear Mr. Wormald,
I eagerly await the November publication of your book “Time for a Model Change: Re-engineering the Global Automotive Industry”.
I present a paper at the ITS World Congress next month that proposes that two different kinds of vehicle – one for the short trip running on solar-electric power as “lighter neighborhood carts” and another for long trips running on a variety of fuel sources – hold the future. In this model,these two kinds of vehicles ply exclusively on streets and motorways respectively. Solar-electric elevators will cross people, bicycles and the lighter neighborhood vehicles over the motorways where they intersect with neighborhood streets.
This will require a “model change” that extends beyond the box – the automobile itself – in downstream activities as you suggest up to the end-of-life.
This will significantly impact the automobile industry as they pick up stakes in “mobility service provider” companies and differentiation is dispersed beyond the automobile box to the complete mobility experience. Their source of revenue will no longer be from selling ownership, mortgages or from “questionable” spare and after-sales service to individuals but from a mix of sale to wal-mart like retail chains and from class-mile fares where they either run or have stakes in “mobility service providers”.
As you rightly point out “the automobile industry has an influence so vast that it is often difficult to see.” With rising oil prices, oil-fueled war and genocides, localised pollution and global warming predictions, road accidents adversely affecting lives around the world that revolve around a decrepit model of the automobiles industry.
I would like to contribute to the search for a new model and propose to collaborate with you in your work.
Regards,
Chandra Vikash
Transportation Practice
Tata Consultancy Services
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