The challenges society faces in achieving net emission reduction are largely recognised by public actors. However, traditional planning processes and institutional settings, conventionally characterised by limited transformative capacity, can present problems when navigating these challenges. Experimentation has been heralded as a means of accelerating the sustainable mobility transition. Yet, experimentation has been criticised for not facilitating transformation of the magnitude required. With this study, we challenge the assumption that the path to an accelerated sustainable mobility transition is paved with experimentation. The apparent links between experimentation, transformative capacity and the acceleration of the sustainable mobility transition are decomposed by applying a reflexive methodology to the experimentation structure employed by the Mistra SAMS research programme in a living lab setting in Botkyrka, Stockholm. The rhetoric behind experimentation, and the roles of the actors involved in the experiment-based temporary organisational structure are disentangled. Our findings centre around the criteria that should be fulfilled for an activity to be classed as experimentation, leading us to question the conclusions that can be drawn if these criteria are not fulfilled. The scale of experimentation compared to other planning functions is highlighted, while differentiating between experimentation and transformation is emphasised.