Climate ChangeCommunity Mobility Co-operatives
Overview
Across Southeast Europe, most people still depend on private, fossil-fuel cars. Electric vehicles are expensive, public charging is patchy, and shared mobility is little known. Community Mobility Co-operatives tests a different route: local groups that own and run EV charging points and shared electric vehicles together, so the benefits of cleaner transport stay in the community.
The project runs from February 2025 to February 2027. It is led by the University of Ljubljana, with Korimako (Slovenia), Platform for Energy Transition (Serbia), Energy Cities Romania and SmartUp in North Macedonia. Its open call is available to community teams in Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.
SmartUp is the local partner for North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We run national training and workshops, coach community teams through the application and business planning, and support the pilots that come out of the open call.
The challenge
Dependence on fossil-fuel cars
Private cars running on fossil fuels dominate daily travel across the region, driving congestion, air pollution and emissions.
High cost of electric vehicles
Electric cars are out of reach for most households, and shared alternatives that could spread the cost are still rare.
Gaps in charging infrastructure
Public charging is limited, rules are often unclear, and there is rarely a sustainable financing model for new charging points.
Little experience with community models
Few communities have the organisational know-how to run shared mobility together, and awareness of the co-operative approach is low.
Activities and methods
The project combines training, coaching and seed funding so that community teams can move from an idea to a working pilot. The approach borrows from community energy: co-operative principles, citizen investment and co-creation with local people, NGOs and municipalities.
What we do
- Training and coaching. Webinars, in-person workshops and expert mentoring in each country. In North Macedonia this included a national webinar in December 2025 and a workshop in Macedonian in January 2026.
- Business and investment planning. Research into the potential for community e-mobility, a base social-enterprise model, and support for each team to produce a business and investment plan for its pilot.
- Seed funding through an open call. Pilot Activation Awards of up to EUR 10,000 for up to four community e-mobility initiatives in the six eligible countries, with training and coaching alongside. At most 60% of a grant can go to equipment such as chargers; the rest funds outreach, business development and investment raising.
- Pilots on the ground. Funded teams register a suitable community-governed legal entity, raise initial community investment and install their first EV charging points by the end of 2026.
- Awareness and coalition building. Campaigns, workshops and local partnerships that bring together citizens, NGOs and local authorities around shared electric mobility.
- Sharing what works. Funded teams publish articles, videos or event presentations on what they learned, and the partners document lessons and a roadmap so the model can be replicated in other regions.
Open call
The open call ran from 27 October 2025 to 15 February 2026. The call guidelines, eligibility rules and local contacts remain available at mobility.innovationlab.mk.
Gallery
Related Websites
Planning similar work?
SmartUp can support research, co-creation, facilitation, digital tools, implementation, or learning documentation for related programmes.