Europe-wide Green eMotion Initiative To Pave the Way for Electromobility

Source: Project Better Place

The European Commission has kicked off a four-year cross-European initiative to promote electromobility. The 42 partners in the initiative comprising industrial companies and automobile manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, universities, and technology and research institutions are to input, exchange and expand their know-how and experience in selected regions within Europe.

“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. The project volume has been budgeted at EUR 42 million, of which the EU will contribute as much as EUR 24 million.

The partners in the initiative are to accumulate experience with electromobility in existing and new test regions within Europe and refine the technology. Key issue is the development of European processes, standards and IT solutions that allow customers of electric vehicles easy and seamless access to charging infrastructure and related services throughout the European Union. Standardization is also the key factor for a fast and cost-efficient European rollout of electromobility.

The total number of charging spots within the existing demonstration regions will be more than 10,000, as nearly 1000 are going to be installed in Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga, some 400 in Rome and Pisa, approximately 3600 in Berlin and about 100 in Strasbourg.

In Denmark, the country with the world’s largest share of wind-based power generation, car importers expect to put 2,000 electric cars on the roads over the coarse of this year and as many as 2,000 public and semi public charges stations will be installed in Copenhagen, Bornholm and Malmö.

Furthermore, some 2,000 electric vehicles and approximately 3,500 charging stations are part of a nation wide rollout in Ireland.

Source: Project Better Place

“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.”

Experience with cars, busses and two-wheelers with pure electric drive systems and as hybrid vehicles is to be gathered in the Green eMotion project. Special aspects in 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.

By the end of this year, Danish drivers will enjoy virtually unlimited range when they can swap out a depleted electric car battery for a fully charged one via a network of battery switch stations. Danish consumers can expect to save 10 – 20% on total cost of ownership on the purchase of an electric car and mobility services than what they currently spend on petrol or diesel-based cars and fuel.

With 20% of Denmark’s electricity generation coming from wind, the batteries in electric cars and in battery switch stations serve as a distributed energy storage network, allowing utilities to harness additional sources of renewable energy including wind. By bringing more sources of renewable energy on line, utilities use less fossil fuel-based power generation, enabling the de-carbonization of the grid – a key policy objective for European Union Member States.

The partners in the Green eMotion Initiative are the industrial companies Alstom, Better Place, Bosch, IBM, SAP and Siemens, the utilities Danish Energy Association, EDF, Endesa, Enel, ESB, Eurelectric, Iberdrola, RWE and PPC, the automobile manufacturers BMW, Daimler, Micro-Vett, Nissan and Renault, the municipalities Barcelona, Berlin, Bornholm, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin (represented by the energy agency of Codema), Malaga, Malmo and Rome, the universities and research institutions Cartif, Cidaut, CTL, DTU, ECN, Imperial, IREC, RSE, TCD and Tecnalia, and the technology institutions DTI, fka and TÜV NORD.