One week remains until the opening of NME – Next Mobility Exhibition, the expo conference dedicated to collective mobility and passenger transport which, from 13 to 16 May, will bring operators, industry and institutions from the sector to Fiera Milano. Held concurrently with Transpotec Logitec, NME is part of an event that will overall bring together more than 500 exhibitors across 6 halls, confirming itself as one of the leading national occasions for discussion on mobility and logistics.
NME will focus on the transformations currently underway in mobility models and the solutions the market is developing to support them. An ecosystem in which sustainability, investments and technological innovation become levers to rethink the transport of people in a more efficient and integrated way.
The topic is particularly relevant in the Italian context, where reliance on private cars remains dominant: with 701 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, among the highest values in Europe, and over 30 million daily trips, the automobile still accounts for around 60–65% of journeys, while local public transport stands at 8–9% (source: ISFORT). It is precisely to address this imbalance that it becomes necessary to develop new public policies and and post‑NRRP investments in Local Public Transport, today the main alternative to car use. A change that must include fleet renewal with zero- and low-emission vehicles, the strengthening of infrastructure, but also the digital transition of services.
NME will devote ample space to this theme, but will also offer an interpretation of the innovative solutions that are transforming collective transport: from sharing mobility to Mobility as a Service models, which integrate public transport, shared mobility and smart services into a single travel experience.
An evolution that will also look at medium- and long-term prospects, such as autonomous driving, which could soon be made possible in Europe as well thanks to the growing digitalization of the sector and renewed regulatory attention.
By bringing together all these directions – from local public transport to shared mobility, from new vehicles to innovations enabled by the application of digital technologies – Next Mobility Exhibition confirms itself as a useful platform for discussion to understand the evolution of the sector and contribute to the construction of future transport models.
NME and the evolution of collective mobility: Sustainability, investments and industrial innovation
The digital and energy transition, together with the improvement of vehicles, processes and services, is reshaping passenger transport, pushing the sector towards increasingly sustainable, integrated and technologically advanced models.
In this scenario, the growing investment in electric mobility represents one of the main development directions of the market and also finds significant representation at the event, with the presence of major manufacturers such as Aveuro, BYD, Indcar, Irizar and mobility, Iveco Bus, King Long, Karsan, MAN Truck & Bus Italia, Menarini, TAM Europe, Solaris Bus & Coach and Yutong, which will present electric buses across all segments, with several premieres.
Alongside vehicles, great attention will be devoted to components and digital technologies, now central to the evolution of public transport. On display will be solutions for the digitalization of operating systems, advanced electronic ticketing, data management, payment integration and digital services for citizens. Finally, there will also be players active in smart infrastructures, automation, electrification and energy for mobility.
Meetings and conferences to change perspective
NME will focus on a strong educational offering that will provide a comprehensive vision of the challenges that are already moving the sector towards new objectives.
In line with a vision that integrates freight and passenger transport, the opening event Passenger and freight transport, public policies and transition: the system in discussion, organized by Fiera Milano in collaboration with the National Register of Road Hauliers and the Italian collective transport associations AGENS, ANAV and ASSTRA, will relate these two complex sectors as interconnected components of a single ecosystem. At the center of the debate: public policies, investments and regulatory tools to support the energy transition, vehicle renewal and the development of intermodality.
A further element connecting the two sectors at this historical moment is the alarm regarding the shortage of workers. In public transport alone, 105,000 bus drivers are missing in Europe and around 12,000 in Italy, equal to 13% of positions, with prospects of further deterioration by 2026 (source: ANAV).
In this context, Transpotec Logitec and NME will jointly address in a concrete way the issue of the mismatch between training and the real needs of the market, worsened by the growing demand for technical skills linked to vehicle digitalization, advanced fleet management and flow planning. Attention to human capital takes shape in the Transport Professions Day – Guide to the future, held on 15 May in collaboration with Think Smart Mobility @MIND. At the heart of the initiative will be the Job Matching Arena, which will bring together companies, associations, school guidance counselors and over 300 students.
The NME–Next Mobility Exhibition events program will then explore specific topics for the sector, such as the evolution of collective mobility starting from Local Public Transport, called upon to face the challenge of the post-NRRP phase. In dialogue with institutions, industry and reference associations such as ASSTRA, Agens and ANAV, the discussion will focus on public policies and strategic choices necessary to support the energy transition of the sector, with particular attention to fleet electrification, the development of charging infrastructure and the introduction of low- and zero-emission solutions. Alongside electric mobility, topics such as hydrogen, biofuel and renewable fuels will also be explored, considered concrete levers to accelerate the ecological renewal of the circulating fleet.
Within a vision of mobility as an integrated and evolving system, NME will also devote ample space to the topics of smart mobility, understood as integration between vehicles, infrastructures and digital ecosystems. Data management, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance and digital platforms become key tools to improve service efficiency and the quality of the travel experience.
A further area of discussion concerns the evolution of new service models, from sharing mobility to MaaS – Mobility as a Service, up to the integration between public transport and shared mobility, which are redesigning urban and interurban mobility offerings in a more flexible, accessible and sustainable way.
Finally, the outlook broadens to longer-term prospects, with a talk by Professor Savaresi of the Politecnico di Milano on autonomous driving and the technologies that make its development possible, in connection with automation, digitalization and new industrial models.
