CONNECT LIFE09 ENV/ES/000507 - Creation Of New Network for Electric Cars Technology
Overview
Background & policy context:
The transport sector is one of the main sources of CO2 emissions in the EU. Passenger-car use accounts for about half of the overall CO2 emissions generated by the transport sector, representing 12% of the total CO2 emissions in the EU and 13% in Spain. The number of cars on EU roads has tripled in the past 30 years, increasing at a rate of around three million vehicles per year. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and their impact on climate change is one of the greatest policy priorities of the European Union. In 2000, average CO2 emissions for passenger cars amounted to 186 g CO2/km. The EU objective was to limit them to 130 g CO2/km by 2012.
Objectives:
The main objective of the CONNECT project was to promote the progressive deployment of electric vehicles as an alternative means of urban mobility. The innovative project aimed to establish a pilot network of five ‘zero-emission recharge points’ (ZERP) for electric vehicles. These points would be fully fuelled by renewable energy and thus provide a 75% more favourable ‘global ecological balance’ than recharging from the mains supply. To further incentivise the use of the system, the project intended to provide 50 electric vehicles to staff of targeted organisations and offer free or subsidised recharging. The project thus hoped to contribute to overcoming some of the technical, economic, and practical barriers to using this ‘clean transport’ alternative for medium-distance journeys in urban areas. The project aimed to demonstrate approaches to cost-efficient emissions reductions by validating the recharging point system, setting a benchmark for the transition to electric vehicles and establishing an EU network of enterprises and institutions committed to this technology.
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