“Another car is not an option”

The halls of the exhibition centre haven't quite emptied yet, but Sunnie Jaye Groeneveld has to get a move on. After having moderated the Gold Stage for Audi at Bits & Pretzels in Munich she now needs to get back to Zurich. Her Audi Q4 e-tron is waiting at the charging station outside. A few hours of charging should be enough to cover the 350 or so kilometres home. “At least that's what the app tells me,” says the Swiss. As does her experience, she adds, while stowing her bags and all her essentials into the Navarra blue Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron.

Sunnie Groeneveld is on the road a lot. “Around 15,000 kilometres a year by car alone,” she roughly estimates. Digitalisation drives her and vice versa. In 2015, she became the first managing director of “digitalswitzerland”, Switzerland’s largest cross-industry initiative for digital transformation. Today, the 34-year-old acts not only as a moderator, but she is also a member of the board at five Swiss companies, a book author and, finally, managing partner of the “Inspire 925” consulting firm.

The Audi Q4 Sportback is already her second e-tron model – actually, it’s her second car ever. Before that, Sunnie Groeneveld admits, she mainly used car sharing and, even more frequently than today, the train. Another car is not an option for her. “I'm often more flexible when I'm traveling by car than by train. But when I drive myself, I want to travel as sustainably as possible.” In her immediate environment, she used to be a pioneer in e-mobility, Groeneveld tells us. “When I got my first electric car from Audi, I didn't have any charging option at home, ” she explains. Thirty parking spaces for the apartment complex, but not a single charging station. “When I had appointments in the city, I took the opportunity and charged my car in a parking garage.” Then came an owners' meeting, and Sunnie Groeneveld was suddenly the champion of the cause. Today, every parking space in her neighbourhood has the option of adding a charging station.

The Swiss appreciates the flexibility that comes with having her own car. She considers it her mobile office. So, when she talks about her vehicle, it's mostly about connectivity or ease of use of the app. She particularly appreciates the fact that she can connect her smartphone automatically and, as she says, “seamlessly”, with the Audi Q4. Whereas the connectivity of mobility and one’s environment “is still in its very early stages.” This often becomes evident when charging the vehicle, Groeneveld explains. “There certainly is still room for improvement when it comes to the communication between infrastructure and user,” she says. She finds it important to maintain the iterative approach, to develop improvements from practical experience. “That's the DNA of digital projects and that's what this is all about. And all in all,” she admits as she drives away, “it does work in most cases.”

Three questions for Sunnie Jaye Groeneveld on electromobility

01. What do you like about your Audi Q4 Sportback e-tron?
The fact that my smartphone syncs quickly and easily is enormously important to me, because I'm actually always on the phone in the car. The fact that I can now navigate to a location using an address in my calendar, via the myAudi app, is a huge benefit. It's one less thing to worry about. Especially with digitalisation, it's the small steps that get you ahead.

02. How do you perceive the development of e-mobility?
I keep coming across more and more people who gained their own experiences with e-vehicles. More often than not, they are excited about it. And when I drive into the parking garage in Zurich, where I always used to find a place to charge my car, it is now difficult to find a free charging station. The operator tells me that he now wants to install more of them.

03. What would you like to see in the future?
Solving interface issues more intuitively and accessing more information from one device on another, would be a huge benefit. And once the voice control feature is optimised, I'll be as happy as a camper. I have to say that the step from my first Audi to the current one is clearly going in the right direction.