Beyond EVs: Towards Connected Mobility Systems

From non-lithium batteries and invisible wireless charging to car-as-a-service and multi-modal platforms, mobility is shifting from products to infrastructure—unlocking new business models, fleet-first opportunities, and entirely different ways to move people and goods.

Mobility is going through a deeper shift than “EVs vs. combustion.” It is moving from rare metals and private ownership to abundant materials, invisible charging, and mobility delivered as a flexible service. At Evolvia, the Mobility thesis is simple: the winners will not just cut emissions, they will make clean mobility so convenient and cost-effective that the old system becomes irrational to use.

The battery transition: beyond lithium scarcity

Lithium-ion enabled the first EV wave, but betting everything on one chemistry concentrates geopolitical, environmental, and safety risks. Non-lithium batteries open a more resilient path for both grids and vehicles.

Sodium-ion, zinc-ion, and iron-air use abundant materials and can be safer and cheaper for grid storage and city EVs, even if they are heavier than lithium. Giants like CATL and Northvolt are commercializing sodium-ion, BYD is piloting it in entry-level EVs, and Zinc8 is deploying zinc-based long-duration storage.

The opportunity now is to build manufacturing, software, and project finance around “right-fit” chemistries—lithium for high-performance, non-lithium for cost-sensitive, long-duration, or stationary use. This is also why Evolvia backs battery innovation: better chemistries and smarter lifecycle management are not just hardware upgrades, they unlock new business models like Car‑as‑a‑Service and autonomous fleets.

Wireless charging: making energy disappear into the background

Today’s plug-in experience still feels like a modified gas station: manual, inconvenient, and incompatible with true autonomy. Wireless charging turns charging into infrastructure—always there, never in the way.

Ground pads transfer power via magnetic resonance to vehicle receivers, enabling static, semi-dynamic, and fully dynamic (in-road) charging scenarios. Challenges include upfront infrastructure cost, lack of universal standards, and the need for high efficiency and safe alignment.

Companies like WiTricity and Momentum Dynamics are going fleet-first, Volvo and Genesis are piloting OEM integration, and standards such as SAE J2954 are maturing. The opportunity is to focus on fleet use cases (taxis, delivery, buses) where unattended, automated charging directly boosts utilization and ROI—and becomes the backbone for autonomous EV fleets. This is exactly the kind of “bold solution” Evolvia backs: infrastructure that makes EVs more convenient and cheaper to operate than gas vehicles.

From owning cars to subscribing to mobility

Private car ownership locks household capital into an asset that sits idle 95% of the time, while cities drown in congestion and parking. Car‑as‑a‑Service (CaaS) flips this model from product to service.

CaaS bundles the car, insurance, maintenance, and support into a flexible subscription, shifting cost and complexity away from the user. Key friction points include unit economics, cultural attachment to ownership, and complex insurance and regulatory frameworks.

Incumbents like Volvo (Care by Volvo) and Porsche Drive, and startups like FINN, are building subscription‑native brands, with EVs as a natural fit due to integrated charging and battery management. The opportunity is to build asset‑light, software‑first platforms that optimize utilization, underwriting, and customer experience—and capture recurring revenue in a multi‑trillion‑dollar industry. Evolvia invests here because subscriptions make EVs and new mobility hardware vastly more accessible, accelerating adoption.

Multi-modal mobility: orchestrating the full journey

Cities today resemble “app jungles”: buses, trains, ride‑hail, and scooters all live in separate systems, pushing users back to cars by default. Multi‑modal mobility and MaaS platforms aim to make integrated journeys simpler than driving.

Mobility‑as‑a‑Service brings planning, booking, and payment for all modes into a single interface so people choose the best combination instead of the most familiar one. The hardest problems are data sharing between competing operators, thin‑margin business models, and governance to ensure equitable access.

Berlin’s Jelbi and Helsinki’s Whim show what public–private partnerships can look like, while Trafi and Moovit power white‑label platforms and super‑apps like Google Maps add more modes. The opportunity is to build the orchestration layer—APIs, data infrastructure, and user experiences—that let cities manage journeys, not just modes, and create new levers for congestion and emission reduction. This is the “Integrated Mobility” space where Evolvia looks for system‑level plays rather than single‑mode bets.

Why this is where Evolvia leans in

Across non‑lithium batteries, wireless charging, CaaS, and multi‑modal mobility, the pattern is similar: value concentrates in orchestration and infrastructure rather than point products. The most compelling plays:

Own the midstream: manufacturing, integration, and software layers that connect chemistries, hardware, and vehicles to real‑world use cases.
Design for fleets and cities first, where utilization is high, data is rich, and economics can be proven before going fully consumer.
Partner deeply with OEMs, utilities, and public agencies rather than trying to displace them; the moat is in being the connective tissue of the new mobility stack.