SWISS employees have been picking up a new way of commuting between hangar and headquarters.
Instead of petrol cars, they are increasingly switching to the more efficient “Microlinos”. This has been made possible through a new collaboration between SWISS and the local manufacturer of electric cars.
The tiny little cars parked next to the imposing Boeing 777-300ER appears like a dwarf next to a giant. With its 2.5 metres in length and 1.5 metres in height, the Microlino lives up to its name. By comparison, the “Triple Seven” is 73.9 metres long and 18.5 metres high – which makes 30 times the size of a Microlino.
With the smaller electric vehicles, they can now help to reduce their impact on the environment and achieve SWISS’ CO₂ targets. These include reducing CO₂ emissions in the air by 50% by 2030 and being CO₂-neutral on the ground. The introduction of a CO₂-neutral vehicle fleet plays a key role in this. SWISS First guests, for example, have already been chauffeured around the airport in electric limousines.
The three new “fleet members” have numerous advantages: They are efficient, cheaper to maintain than conventional petrol cars, take up less space and have been specially designed for short journeys. According to Micro, the average car is only used by 1.2 people and is only driven 35 kilometres per day. This means that 95% of cars are too big for their intended use. What’s more: Compared to an average car, a Microlino consumes around 60% less CO₂ during operation and production, says Merlin Ouboter, co-founder of Microlino.