The European Commission has kicked off Green eMotion, a four-year cross-European initiative to promote electromobility and enable its mass deployment in Europe. The initiative has been funded for better coordination of and better cooperation between a significant number of isolated demonstration electromobility projects, which are currently being implemented in the EU. Coordination and standardization are necessary to reach sustainable results and facilitate interoperability and consumer convenience. By merely extending and combining these projects no real impact would be achieved as consumer acceptance can only be created on a large scale if a holistic user-friendly framework is created. “Electromobility will make an important contribution toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Green eMotion is intended to ensure the fast-track success of electric vehicles,” said Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner responsible for Transport at the launch of the project in March. The 42 partners in the initiative comprising industrial companies and automobile manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, universities, and technology & research institutions are to input, exchange and expand their know-how and experience in selected regions within Europe:

Industries:
Alstom, Better Place, Bosch, IBM,
SAP, Siemens
Utilities:
Danish Energy Association, EDF,
Endesa, Enel, ESB, Eurelectric,
Iberdrola, RWE, PPC
Electric vehicle manufacturers:
BMW, Daimler, Micro-Vett,
Nissan, Renault
Municipalities:
Barcelona, Berlin, Bornholm,
Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin,
Malaga, Malmö, Rome
Research institutions and
universities:
Cartif, Cidaut, CTL, DTU, ECN,
Imperial, IREC, RSE, TCD,
Tecnalia
EV technology institutions:
DTI, FKA, TÜV Nord

External stakeholders to facilitate the access to information not held by the consortium, to disseminate Green eMotion knowledge and encourage its application outside the consortium.

The partners in the initiative will leverage on the experience gained with electromobility in existing and new test regions within Europe. Key issues for the success of electromobility will be the development of Pan-European processes, standards and IT solutions to allow customers easy and seamless access to the charging infrastructure and related services throughout the European Union. Standardization is also the key factor for a fast, cost-efficient European rollout of electromobility. “The local concepts applied to date, in which experience was accumulated in specific demonstration regions, will now be bundled in cross-European trials. The aim is to pave the way for electromobility throughout Europe. “This will require standards for infrastructure, networking and IT,” said Heike Barlag from Siemens, who coordinates the Green eMotion project. “By bundling individual activities in a major partner initiative we’re gaining momentum and transparency, and ensuring the coordinated development of electromobility.” The demonstrator projects involved in Green eMotion foresee the use of cars, busses and two-wheelers with both pure electric and hybrid drive systems. Some of the demonstration regions include battery swapping and DC charging as well as smart grid integration, cross-border traffic, different payment systems and the testing of alternative business models.
 

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