From invention to innovation, new mobilities are gradually changing the face of towns and cities. At a time when urban objects are becoming part of sustainable mobility, old fashioned telephone boxes have been transformed into electric vehicle charging terminals.
On the 6th May 2010, the first telephone box capable of charging electric cars was unveiled in Vienna. It’s a cunning trick from the operator Telekom Austria (TA) which is now able to offer its 13,500 boxes, neglected since the mobile telephony boom, a second life.
"Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed"
According to the Austrian operator (TA), a car needs 6 and a half hours to charge up, while a motorcycle needs 80 minutes and an electric bicycle 20 minutes. The "full tank" in energy, estimated to cost less than €10 (£8.66), could be paid for via the drivers’ mobile phones. At a cost of between €1,500 and €3,000 (£1,300-£2,600) per box, 30 terminals should see the day before the end of the year.
Old telephone boxes in Spanish cities should soon be receiving the same fittings. The Spanish government, which has launched a wide-ranging plan for the electric car, has invested €1.6m (£1.38m) in this project. The company Telefonica thus plans to convert 546 old phone boxes in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Seville, which would be enough to supply a fleet of around 2,000 electric cars
Initiatives that prove that the movement towards increasingly environmentally mobilities will also take place in continuity through the gradual adaptation of our urban infrastructures. A centuries-old lesson: "Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed." (Antoine Lavoisier).
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