A collaboration with the iconic Autostadt in Wolfsburg

Revolutionizing E-Mobility at HANNOVER MESSE 2024

HANNOVER MESSE is always a real highlight – the largest exhibition centre in the world and we are right in the middle of it. It’s always a bit of a journey around the world before you reach your booth.

This year, HM.prototype.club revolved around a fascinating challenge set by the well-known Autostadt in Wolfsburg.

About the Autostadt

If you haven’t been there yet, you should definitely pay a visit. The Autostadt in Wolfsburg is the Volkswagen Group’s experience centre. It is a communication platform where there is a lot to discover. There is a wide range of activities and attractions for families, car enthusiasts, those hungry for knowledge and connoisseurs. These include a large park and lagoon landscape, the automobile museum, which presents the moving history of mobility, as well as numerous events and cultural events such as the annual Movimentos festival.

The Autostadt is the world’s largest automobile delivery centre and is home to the most visited automobile museum in the world, the ZeitHaus.

Presentation topic for the Autostadt - with the HM.prototype.club to new innovations

Large corporations are constantly facing new challenges. Charging electric vehicles is almost standard nowadays, it’s quick and easy and available in many places, including the Autostadt. But why not turn every minute into a real experience? That’s what the Autostadt thought, and together with prototype.club, an exciting presentation topic was launched: The Autostadt was looking for innovative ideas for the next level of e-charging stations in Wolfsburg. They were looking for solutions that would turn e-charging into a holistic experience and enable customers to make effective use of their time during the charging process.

Over the past few weeks, start-ups have had the opportunity to apply and present their ideas for a WOW e-charging experience. And we can tell you: there were some really cool ideas!

Innovations in action: the highlights of the pitches

Out of more than 20 teams, 10 were on site at the Hannover Messe as part of Hack4Industry to present their ideas to the Autostadt jury. The jury consisted of CEO Edith Gerhardt, Christopher Goetz von Olenhusen, Tim Weschpatat and Jörg Dahmer (see photos below in the same order).

edith
dahmer

Their focus on the WOW effect not only opened up great opportunities for revolutionising the charging infrastructure in e-mobility, but also around the customer experience.

 

These start-ups have pitched:

  • me energy: Develops, produces and distributes the world’s first fully self-sufficient, 100% CO2-neutral and mobile fast charging station for electric vehicles.
  • Voltvogel: Offers a flexible and scalable charging service for electric vehicles on demand.
  • Chargetic GmbH: Realises intelligent and easily scalable charging solutions for electric cars in apartment buildings – from planning to operation.
  • Infinite Foundry: Enables the transformation of the charging process into an engaging, efficient and sustainable journey with digital twin technology and holistic customer experiences.
  • Nextract Energy UG: Utilises surplus, unused electricity to charge electric vehicles by integrating upcoming surplus capacity into charging management.
  • IAC Würzburg: presents bespoke services and experiences that are tailored to the individual needs and behaviours of the user to encourage visitor engagement with the brand.
  • Studicon: Took a holistic approach and conducted surveys to find out what people want. The top 3 were presented: Yoga relaxation zones, car care, drive-in cinema, etc.
  • Nlevel: Invented their own technology, based on their patent, which is modular, scalable and makes chargers and inverters redundant and transforms the charging infrastructure.
  • City a Day: offers a virtual Autostadt tour on touchscreen displays, along with the opportunity to plan the tour and discover the various spots of the Autostadt while charging the car.
  • Volytica Diagnostics: specializes in battery diagnostics for commercial vehicles, aiming to extend battery life and reduce costs.

From exciting 8D sound systems for entertainment to innovations in green energy, the Autostadt judges were impressed today and got to hear some brilliant ideas from the HM.prototype.club.

Panel Insights: The future of collaboration with start-ups

What should not be missing alongside the pitches? Of course, exciting presentations by real experts. It was confirmed once again that collaboration with start-ups is no longer just a nice to have, but offers essential added value for companies.
Kai Koelmel shed light on the challenges in the field of critical raw materials and the resulting opportunities for European start-ups.
Sebastian A. Krieger then presented the new battery recycling solution from Bosch Rexroth, which took second place in the HERMES AWARD for outstanding innovations at HANNOVER MESSE 2024.
Dr Jens Hoerner from hannoverimpuls GmbH explained how important collaboration with start-ups is and how they can be supported, for example by hannoverimpuls and initiatives such as HACK4INDUSTRY.
Prof. Dr. Daniel Werth from the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute emphasised the need for open innovation as a path that companies must take today.
Summarising the presentations, it can be said that collaboration with start-ups is essential for companies to meet the challenges of the future. The opportunities lie particularly in innovation, sustainability and technology. Through open collaboration and support, companies and start-ups can work together to shape and drive the industrial landscape of tomorrow.

This exciting event took place at the Industrial Startup Stage, where Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck had emphasized the outstanding importance of cooperation between startups and established companies just two days earlier. And as promised, this topic was immediately put into practice…

We sum up

Great ideas have been well received – with a promising future. After these exciting days with the HM.prototype.club, the Autostadt is looking forward to exciting, in-depth discussions with the individual teams and to tackling one or two innovations together.

We remain curious to see what ideas we will see here in the future! And who knows, maybe in a few years we will be able to spend our (presumably drastically shorter) charging time in a drive-in cinema!

IMPRESSIONS

IN COOPERATION WITH

Jessi

AUTHOR

Jessica Wrobel

Creative mind with a passion for relevant and good content