Schiller Paris Students Explore the Future of Sustainable Mobility at the Mondial de l’Auto

What does the future of mobility look like, and how sustainable will it really be?

Students from Schiller International University’s Paris Campus explored these questions beyond the classroom during a visit to the Mondial de l’Auto in Paris, where innovations in electric mobility, artificial intelligence, battery technology, and alternative transportation offered real-world examples of some of the sustainability challenges and opportunities discussed in their studies.

Led by Professor Fereshteh Barei, the activity brought together bachelor’s and master’s students from different degree programs, bringing a range of academic perspectives to the experience. Sustainability provided one of the central lenses through which students approached the exhibition, connecting particularly with topics explored in Schiller’s sustainability program, while also encouraging students from other fields to consider how environmental, technological, and business challenges increasingly intersect.

The objective was not simply to discover the latest vehicles and technologies, but to examine them critically and consider how the promises presented by companies connect with concepts explored in the classroom.

Students explored innovations ranging from electric and hydrogen-powered mobility to autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, flying vehicles, and humanoid robots. They also engaged directly with representatives from different companies, conducting interviews and asking questions about battery life cycles, recycling, technological development, and the wider environmental impact of the transition towards electric mobility.

Key Takeaways

• Connecting Sustainability with Real-World Innovation: Students examined how concepts discussed in class are being applied across the automotive and mobility industries.
• Looking Beyond the Electric Vehicle: The visit encouraged students to consider sustainability across a vehicle’s entire life cycle, including manufacturing, batteries, energy use, repair, reuse, and end-of-life management.
• Exploring New Technologies: Displays included electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, autonomous technology, artificial intelligence, flying mobility concepts, and robotics.
• Learning Directly from Industry: Some students interviewed company representatives and technical specialists, putting their communication and research skills into practice.
• Building Knowledge Together: Students compared their observations after the visit, combining different perspectives to develop a broader understanding of the innovations they had encountered.

Exploring the Technologies Shaping Future Mobility

Across the exhibition, students encountered technologies that demonstrated how rapidly the mobility sector is evolving.

Brands including BYD, XPENG, Kia, Renault, Hyundai, Ford, and Volvo presented different approaches to electric, hybrid, and technology-enabled mobility. Students also encountered developments in areas such as autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, battery technologies, and charging infrastructure.

Some of the more forward-looking concepts demonstrated how mobility could extend beyond conventional vehicles. At the XPENG stand, for example, students explored applications of artificial intelligence across cars, robotaxis, flying vehicles, and humanoid robotics. One student reflected on how seeing these technologies in person demonstrated that AI is increasingly moving beyond computers and becoming part of physical systems interacting with the real world.

But for students approaching the exhibition through the perspective of sustainability, seeing new technology was only the beginning.

Looking Beyond the Sustainability Claims

A central objective of the visit was to encourage students to look critically at what sustainable mobility really means.

Electric vehicles may reduce dependence on fossil fuels during their use, but students explored how their overall environmental impact depends on a much wider set of factors. These include raw-material extraction, manufacturing, battery production and lifespan, energy consumption, maintenance, repairability, recycling, and end-of-life management.

Conversations with representatives from companies including BYD, Kia, and Renault allowed students to investigate questions surrounding battery design, charging infrastructure, running costs, battery repair, second-life applications, and recycling.

One student also interviewed the Head of R&D at French technology company Valeo, creating an opportunity to explore ecological transformation from a technical perspective. The discussion included Valeo’s CAP 50 strategy and its goal of achieving carbon neutrality across its value chain by 2050.

These conversations encouraged students to consider an important question: How can we distinguish technological innovation from genuinely sustainable progress?

Turning Observation into Active Learning

The students were not limited to walking through displays and observing the technologies presented.

Some took the initiative to interview exhibitors and company representatives, asking more detailed questions about the sustainability of electric vehicles and the technologies supporting them. This gave students an opportunity to practice professional communication while seeking the information needed to assess the environmental claims surrounding different products.

We were able to practice interviewing and talking with representatives of different car companies, which helped us learn a lot of new things and develop communication skills

explained another student, reflecting on how the visit combined sustainability learning with practical employability skills training.

Building a Bigger Picture Through Different Perspectives

One of the most valuable elements of the experience came after students had explored the exhibition.

With five large halls and a wide variety of companies and technologies on display, different students naturally focused on different areas. Rather than limiting the learning experience, these different perspectives became an advantage when the groups shared their observations afterwards.

Students compared the stands they had visited, the conversations they had held, and the technologies that had captured their attention. By bringing these individual experiences together, the group could build a more complete picture of the exhibition and connect their observations with their sustainability learning objectives.

The activity also brought together bachelor’s and master’s students, creating opportunities to exchange different perspectives and spend time together outside the Campus environment.

The visit to the Mondial de l’Auto reflects Schiller’s approach to experiential learning, taking academic questions beyond the classroom and placing students in environments where they can observe developments firsthand, engage with professionals, ask critical questions, and test ideas against real-world examples.

The future of mobility may have been on display, but for Schiller Paris students, the real learning came from looking beyond the technology itself and asking what true progress towards a more sustainable future should look like.