The year 2024 has been a turbulent one, marked by numerous challenges for mobility providers, political leaders, and consumers alike. Looking ahead, the situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon, especially with populist movements around the world pushing to maintain the status quo, often supported by powerful oil and gas interests aiming to preserve their dominance in the mobility sector. As we move into 2025, the path ahead remains uncertain, but there are several key trends in mobility and infrastructure development that will shape the year. These trends, primarily from a European perspective, reflect the ongoing evolution of transportation systems and the shifting dynamics within the mobility industry. Here are my five predictions for how these developments will unfold in the New Year.

At China's most important motor show, which has been taking place in Shanghai from the end of April until 2 May, everything revolves around electric innovations. In global automotive circles, this is not really considered to be news, because China has been the leading market for e-mobility for years. Auto Shanghai 2025 just confirms that the world's most dynamic auto market now sets the global innovation tempo. More than 100 new models, most of them fully electric cars, are presented here, software-defined platforms and cross-border alliances signal how quickly value pools are shifting and where competitive advantage will be made next.

Over the past years, the mobility world has been an avid follower of the ongoing transformation in Norway. Compared to most countries, Norway is the frontrunner when it comes to embracing electric vehicles. Today, the world's largest EV driver association with 120,000 members is actually based in Norway. Since the beginning of 2025 the Scandinavian country is very close to reaching their EV only goal – expecting a market share between 95 and 100 per cent for the whole year – again a global first.

With the Olympic Games in Paris coming up at the end of July, MOTION Magazine took a deep dive into the key question for all urban centers that are brave enough to host a global event like that: What does it take for a host city or region to benefit sustainably from the Olympic Games in terms of infrastructure and from a socio-cultural viewpoint? Two games and cities - "host cities'' - will serve as examples in finding an answer to this question: Munich 1972 and Barcelona 1992. What made these games so special (and particularly sustainable), and where do great opportunities lie for Paris? Here is my attempt at an answer.