On Friday, April 22nd and Saturday, April 23rd, the annual YES-Europe conference, organized in conjunction with PoliENERGY, was held at the Stellantis Heritage Hub in Turin.
YES-Europe is an international non-profit association that, since 2016, has brought together university students and young entrepreneurs who are passionate about energy and sustainability issues; PoliENERGY is a non-profit student association at the Polytechnic University of Turin.
The event serves as an opportunity to restart in-person meetings as part of the Academy program, organized by the Stellantis e-Mobility Business Unit since 2019.
The Stellantis e-Mobility Academy was created with the aim of promoting the culture related to electric mobility among young people. It benefits from constant discussion with them, gathering ideas on how Generation Z currently experiences mobility and expects to in the future.
Over 13,000 students across Europe have been involved in its activities in the space of two years, according to a model based on a genuine exchange of experiences and perspectives: one example is the challenges and hackathons e-Mobility regularly organizes with students, which enable Stellantis to launch multidisciplinary projects in the field of sustainable mobility.
The event took place over two days: on April 22nd, the topic was energy and technology; on the 23rd, it was sustainability. On day 1, Stellantis experts illustrated some of the Group’s most innovative projects, such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) at the Mirafiori complex, which supports the dissemination of renewable energies by using electric vehicles to supply power to the national grid. Day 2 explained the Group’s approach to the topic of the Circular Economy, with specific reference to the handling of batteries that have reached the end of their useful life in cars.
The event was attended in person by around 200 students, who participated in workshops and discussions with managers, researchers, young entrepreneurs, and coordinators of student associations.
“As part of pursuing the goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2038 that we announced in the Dare Forward 2030 long-term strategic plan, it is now more important than ever to involve the new generations, who are actively engaged in proposing innovative solutions aimed at encouraging the spread of more environmentally conscious lifestyles,” stated Anne-Lise Richard, Global Head of the Stellantis e-Mobility Business Unit. “The active participation of students in the e-Mobility Academy events enables us to gather ideas for offering new services to customers who decide to drive electric, to improve their user experience while respecting the planet.”
“From the outset, the Heritage Hub has been intended as a multifunctional space, a point of connection and indeed as a ‘hub’. Not only does the Hub celebrate the glorious past of the Group’s Turin-based automotive brands, it also writes new chapters in the future of mobility, made possible by training events involving the new generations,” noted Roberto Giolito, Head of Heritage at Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Lancia & Abarth. “We are therefore delighted to have hosted students from YES-Europe and to have embarked on fruitful and constructive dialog with them on the latest issues in sustainability and energy, safe in the knowledge that they will have been inspired by over a century of automotive excellence in imagining the future of mobility.”
SOURCE: Stellantis
