RheinSharing and Ford cooperate

The start-up from Cologne wants to generate electricity for e-mobility together with the car manufacturer - from the Rhine.

The car manufacturer Ford and the Cologne-based start-up RheinSharing are doing things together. According to Ford, the young company, which emerged from the Technical University of Cologne, and the company have signed a so-called Memorandum of Understanding. The founding team had already been in contact with Ford and had taken part in the "Ford Fund Smart Mobility Challenge", among other things.

The idea that the start-up and the car manufacturer are now pursuing is based on the Rhine, which flows right through Cologne. The current could be used to generate energy that could be used to power electric cars in the cathedral city, for example. The cooperation partners now want to develop an initial concept to determine whether and how this can work. Convenient for Ford: Its own factory is located on the Rhine, so it could possibly profit directly from the idea. In the long term, a hydroelectric power plant could be used at the Niehl site. However, the start-up is apparently already thinking a little more urban and could imagine small hydroelectric power plants along the Rhine, which would then supply electricity for e-bikes. For this purpose, some of the company's own platforms are to be built on the Rhine, under which the hydroelectric plants can then operate.

Inan interview with the local newspaper Express, Rhine Sharing spokesman Marcel Heilich said: "Our goal is to develop solutions that combine the urban use of hydropower through innovative technology with sustainable architecture. The idea is to find locations in the inner-city area along the Rhine where mobility stations and hydroelectric power plants could be built to provide green electricity."