MOONCITY:

exciting centre for new and electric mobility opens in Salzburg

• MOONCITY will be a centre for the exchange of know-how on mobility topics of the future, across different brands and industries
• MOONCITY's mission is to make e-mobility and new forms of mobility an everyday reality for broad segments of the population

MOONCITY in Salzburg, an exciting experience and discovery centre for e-mobility, charging infrastructure and sustainable forms of energy is opening its doors. The opening of the centre that is yet another Porsche milestone marks the 70th anniversary of Porsche Austria, and will help shape upcoming changes in mobility and energy, which constitute the most dramatic transition in the history of the automobile.

Achieving the CO₂ targets in the Paris Agreement on climate change will be vital, and e-mobility must therefore play a central role: battery-based e-mobility is at present the most promising technology for rapid implementation on a large scale. To help ensure that it achieves a breakthrough, a fully-fledged charging infrastructure will be needed.

Porsche Holding Salzburg has therefore established the MOON brand. MOON's mission is to make e-mobility an everyday reality for broad segments of the population. MOON covers all areas of energy management, including the supply, storage and consumption of energy, mainly for mobility purposes. MOON is an enabler for e-mobility, offering consumers and business customers tailored solutions for embarking on this new era. As a system provider with an overarching approach, MOON covers the full spectrum in the field of e-mobility. 

Hotspot for new and electric mobility
MOON also lends its name to the current hotspot for new and electric mobility, MOONCITY. At MOONCITY, research will be conducted into sustainable battery repair concepts, and the benefits of the new technologies will be showcased in a playful way. The aim is to make the future of mobility readily understandable to everyone in a concrete way.

The 70th anniversary of Porsche Austria as an importer is an opportunity to look ahead in a forward-looking manner, rather than to take a comprehensive look back or celebrate the successes of the past. MOONCITY will serve as a roadmap for what lies ahead. "MOONCITY is a flagship project for our company and an investment in its future," points out Dr Hans-Peter Schützinger, CEO of the PHS Management Board. "Especially during periods of major change, clear strategies are needed, and our strategy points towards e-mobility. For us, Porsche Austria's 70th anniversary is an excellent opportunity to open MOONCITY as a centre for new and electric mobility, rather than taking an extensive look at our past accomplishments. In this way we're sending a clear message about the company's future direction."

The start of a new era: MOONCITY opens its doors
The opening of MOONCITY also marks the beginning of a new era for the Sterneckstraße site in Salzburg. In the past, the site was inter alia used as a sales location for the Porsche sports car brand and most recently as a Das WeltAuto location. Now, MOONCITY opened at the Sterneckstraße site on 6 December 2019. "The opening of MOONCITY marks the start of a new era in mobility in a way that visitors can experience interactively," notes Wilfried Weitgasser, Managing Director of Porsche Austria and Allmobil GmbH. "With MOON, we intend to do some of the preliminary work in preparation for decarbonised sustainable mobility. MOONCITY will be an important hub across different brands and different industries." Weitgasser adds: "MOONCITY is a place for dialogue and innovation. New ideas will be born here, and there will be new impetus in fields such as charging infrastructure and battery recycling."

MOONCITY: a centre for innovation and experience
Admission to MOONCITY is free, which means it will appeal to broad segments of the population. The core of MOONCITY is an exciting experience and discovery centre focusing on e-mobility and mobility of the future. The goal is to provide "edutainment to everyone", along with explanatory information on complex mobility topics. "MOONCITY is not just an experience and discovery centre, it's a knowledge platform and events location as well", says Leo Fellinger, Head of MOONCITY. "For example, on 13 December the Urban Mobility Lab will meet here as part of a kick-off event, and numerous other conferences and events will be held here in 2020.

Porsche and the moon
At MOONCITY, visitors' journey into e-mobility will start with a trip to the moon. This is very appropriate, since a glance into the history books reveals an early link between Porsche and the moon: by obtaining a patent for hub-mounted electric motors and developing the electric Lohner Porsche in 1898, Ferdinand Porsche not only wrote an early chapter in automotive history but also created the basis for NASA's first lunar rover. And recently, in 2015, Audi developed a lunar rover with electric motors powered by solar panels, the Audi Lunar Quattro. This lunar rover is on display at MOONCITY.

The inner life of a battery
Another highlight of the experience and discovery centre is the Battery Scanner: visitors can move a screen along the VW ID.3 to view the technology inside. This is also a focal point of MOONCITY's workshop area, where repair solutions for high-voltage batteries are developed with an emphasis on sustainability, and concepts for giving high-voltage batteries a second life are developed and tested. This repair centre, with coverage for all of Austria, will also gather valuable know-how on how best to provide training for the network of workshops.

A further attraction at MOONCITY is the traffic simulator, on which visitors can try out their skills as traffic planners. The goal is to provide insight into the interplay of intelligent parking management, public transport and various sharing models. To top it all off, MOONCITY also has a restaurant, My Indigo Eat and Charge, which is based around the highly appropriate concept of enjoying one's food while charging one's e-vehicle on a MOON charging station outside. 

Opening hours
Experience and discovery centre: Tuesday-Friday 10:00-18:00; Saturdays 10:00-17:00. Admission is free. Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Registration for groups: please contact info@mooncity-salzburg.at

Visitors can also enjoy the experience and discovery centre without a guide. The project partner for the centre is Archimedes Exhibitions GmbH (Berlin). MOONCITY is also bookable as an event location.

Website
Full details on MOONCITY can be found at www.mooncity-salzburg.at, including the philosophy behind it, upcoming events and a glossary of e-mobility terms.

About MOON and Allmobil GmbH
MOON (www.moon-power.com) is a brand of Salzburg-based Allmobil GmbH, which develops and brings to market forward-looking and innovative technologies for Porsche Holding Salzburg across different brands.