The STEER Brussels pilot is now well underway, with a series of local outreach and engagement activities taking place across the Belgian capital to better understand how citizens and public authorities experience and adopt electric carsharing.
Led by Brussels Environment in collaboration with Cambio, the pilot focuses on a central question: what are the real barriers preventing wider uptake of electric carsharing, and how can cities help overcome them?
Over the past weeks, multiple information and training sessions have been organised across Brussels, including in Saint-Gilles, Schuman, and Dansaert. These events brought together residents to discover how electric carsharing works in practice and to gain confidence in using shared electric vehicles.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with strong turnout recorded across all locations and continued interest in future sessions.
Learning by doing: a one-month trial in Saint-Gilles
A particularly innovative component of the Brussels pilot has been taking place in Saint-Gilles, where communal employees have participated in a one-month testing period using Cambio shared vehicles.
The trial combines both electric and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, allowing participants to directly compare their experiences and better understand the differences between conventional and electric shared mobility.
To support this process, participants have been accompanied by Mobility Coaches from Maestromobile, helping users navigate practical questions and build confidence around first-time use.
The insights emerging from this trial are expected to provide valuable feedback on user perceptions, behavioural barriers, and practical implementation challenges. The STEER team now looks forward to analysing the first lessons learned.
Building confidence through training and coaching
Alongside the Saint-Gilles trial, Brussels partners have organised four dedicated training sessions in partnership with Cambio and the mobility coaching team.
These two-hour sessions were designed to provide hands-on guidance on how to use Cambio’s electric vehicles and to demystify the experience of shared electric mobility.
The level of interest has been remarkable:
- 364 participants registered for the sessions
- 80 participant surveys completed
The training sessions have already generated valuable insight into why some users remain hesitant to adopt electric carsharing.
Participants identified several recurring barriers, including:
- limited availability of nearby e-Cambio vehicles;
- fear of first use;
- uncertainty about how the system works;
- mobility habits and routine;
- unfamiliarity with automatic gearboxes.
These findings strengthen one of the key assumptions of the Brussels pilot: many barriers to electric carsharing are not only technical or infrastructural, but behavioural and informational as well.
A continuing process
The Brussels pilot remains an active and evolving process. Additional information sessions are still being organised, allowing the project team to continue engaging directly with residents and gathering feedback.
By combining citizen outreach, mobility coaching, and real-world testing, Brussels is helping STEER better understand how electric carsharing can become more accessible, inclusive, and easy to use.
A sincere thank you goes to everyone involved in making these activities possible, including the Brussels team, Cambio, Espaces-Mobilités, Maestromobile, and the Commune de Saint-Gilles / Gemeente van Sint-Gillis for their continued support and collaboration.
The first insights are already emerging, and more will follow soon as the Brussels pilot continues to unfold.