D’Ieteren kicks off its own ‘Mobility Solutions’ motor show

On Tuesday, Belgium’s most significant car importer, D’Ieteren Automotive, kicked off its own B2B ‘motor show’ in the industrial settings of Silo Brussels, a former brewery and malthouse located along the canal at Neder-Over-Heembeek. Called ‘Mobility Solutions’ by D’Ieteren, it demonstrates it’s no longer about selling cars only but rather focusing on a far broader scope.

It’s not a consumer motor show like the Belgian car federation Febiac used to organize, which attracted up to 750,000 possible car buyers in its top years. This is a B2B event focusing on fleet managers who themselves often have become ‘mobility managers’ in the companies they represent.

Volkswagen Group EV offerings

Still on display are nearly all Volkswagen Group’s current and near-future electric offerings, ranging from the new VW Tiguan e-Hybrid and the ID.7 Tourer, the Cupra Tavascan, two Belgian firsts with the new Skoda Superb Combi and the PHEV Kodiaq iV, up to the Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid. The new Taycan was unveiled a week ago and hasn’t arrived in Brussels yet.

For all this electric gear, D’Ieteren is offering companies and private buyers a whole suite of energy solutions, from solar panels to Alfen Eve rebranded wall boxes of 11 kW up to fast chargers of 120 kW for companies via EDI. The latter is an acronym for ‘Electric by D’Ieteren’.

Solar panels and chargers

The brand CEO for EDI is Dutchman Roy Mulder, who lives happily in Belgium, as he tells us. He joined the Waasmunster-based solar panel business of Chris Poppe in 2014, the company acquired by D’Ieteren later and rebaptized ‘Go-Solar by D’Ieteren under the EDI umbrella. EDI installed more than 8,000 charging points today with a team of 30 people.

Today, companies and private clients tend to invest in entire solutions, with energy management systems playing an essential role in maximizing the usage of self-induced power by integrating solar panels, modular battery backup solutions of 5, 10, and 15 kWh, and wall boxes for EV charging.

Mulders sees promising opportunities within the next four years as car manufacturers present more and more bidirectional charging, including Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), which enables users to sell some of their surplus energy to the grid operator.

Prototype Q6 e-tron and ID.2 design study

Other eyecatchers, like at a ‘real’ motor show, are the camouflaged prototype of the Q6 e-tron and the design studies of the newest generation ID.3 and ID.2. The latter is a possible future hit for the private market next to the fleet market, with an introduction price targeted at €25,000.

Also on display is the Swiss-Italian remake of the BMW Isetta, the Microlino that D’Ieteren distributes in BeLux and France. More than 100 units have already been sold, and 80 have been delivered.

Microlino: doctor’s favorite

According to Microlino brand CEO Vincent Struye, the latter is particularly popular. Family doctors prefer the well-designed Microlino for their home visits over the ‘open’ Renault Twizzy in ‘rainy’ Belgium today. Self-employed and small businesses are also fond of the Swiss microcar as a replacement for the Smart ForTwo, which used to be a favorite driving advertisement.

Expect a lot of smiles while cruising through the city as this beautifully designed egg on wheels surely is an eyecatcher, and the LED strip spanning the whole front door makes the Microline smile itself.

We’re talking from personal experience, as we tested the microcar ourselves for a week. But prepare to give up some of the comforts you take for granted in a modern car. You can’t have it all for a – still spicy – price of €17,990 to €19,990, which can drop as low as €12,990 if you’re a private buyer eligible for the Flemish EV premium.

Promising market of ‘voiturettes’

Struve says this boosts the Microlino, especially as a second or even third-family car. That might even be more true for the just-unveiled ‘Lite’ or L6e version of the Microlino L7e, limited to a maximum speed of 45 km/hour, half that of its older brother. But the advantage is you can drive it in Belgium from the age of 16 with a moped license.

In France, comparable light quadricycles, known as ‘voiturettes’ from other brands like Ligier, are a big hit with (wealthy) youngsters as they can be driven there from age 14 to go to school. Vincent Struye points out that there is a big market of around 25,000 ‘voiturettes’ there, still mostly with fossil fuel engines.

Although Citroën, according to Struye, has already partly ‘destroyed’ the market with the Ami 8 offered at €7,990, a price the carmaker is losing money with. For the 45 km/h Microlino L6e, you’ll have to pay €17,990 with deliveries from the summer of 2024 onward. Struye adds that that’s more on par with the fully electric offers of French Ligier and Aixam.

But there is more out there than vehicles on four wheels, D’Ieteren shows at Silo Brussels, like bicycles becoming in Belgium a rapidly growing alternative in the mobility budgets companies can grant their employees. D’Ieteren’s bicycle daughter, Lucien, opened today’s newest shop at the Diestsevest in Louvain.