Overview
The Green eMotion project is part of the European Green Cars Initiative (EGCI) that was launched within the context of the European Recovery Plan. It supports the achievement of the EU’s ambitious climate goals, such as the reduction of CO2 emissions by 60 percent by the year 2050. EGCI supports the research and development of road transport solutions that have the potential to achieve sustainable as well as ground breaking results in the use of renewable and non-polluting energy sources.
The Green eMotion project was officially launched by Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission, at a high-level kick-off meeting in Bruxelles on 31 March 31 2011. Within four years, it will be working to prepare the foundation for the mass deployment of Europe-wide electromobility. The project has a total budget of €42 million and will be funded by the European Commission with €24 million.
The primary goal of the project is to define Europe-wide standards. To this end, practical research is being conducted in different demo regions all over Europe with the aim of developing and demonstrating a commonly accepted and user-friendly framework that combines interoperable and scalable technical solutions with a sustainable business platform. For the implementation of this framework, Green eMotion will take into account smart grid developments, innovative ICT solutions, different types of EVs, as well as urban mobility concepts.
The Green eMotion project is based on diverse national and European electromobility projects: It connects these ongoing regional and national initiatives and concentrates them into one international initiative. It builds upon already existing results and compares different technology approaches to make sure that the best solutions possible will be established on the European market.
WP1 Synchronisation of demonstration regions
Since municipalities play an important role to support and stimulate the introduction of EVs, the objective of WP1 is to set up, implement and synchronize demonstration activities in the twelve demonstration regions of Green eMotion. In addition, WP1 aims at ensuring a great variety of fleets, vehicle types and concepts as well as implementing mechanisms for data sharing and best practice evaluation among all regions, while some extra demonstration features will be implemented in each region to enable further tests and a wider spectrum of activities.
WP2 Urban electromobility concepts, policies and regulations
The introduction of electromobility is as complex as it is challenging. It relies on a strong, long-term vision and the dedication of municipalities and local electricity providers. WP2 will asses the different concepts for a rollout from a municipality planning and policy perspective. The key features which are necessary for a successful mass roll out of electric cars in Europe will be determined.
WP3 Electromobility services / ICT solutions
ICT is seen as the key enabler for electromobility, offering a multitude of basic and advanced services to the driver. The integration of these services will allow the usability for the end user without regional limitations (e.g. with roaming or recharging location services) and will enable the realization of economies of scale for advanced service offerings like fleet management.
WP4 Grid EV-solution
The objective of WP4 is to use the numerous ongoing demonstration field trials to define best-practice solutions for recharging infrastructure from a grid operator‘s perspective. Provision of adequate grid capacity and appropriate grid operation tools in order to welcome EV’s and make them beneficial for power system operation are key questions to be investigated and demonstrated.
WP5 Recharging Infrastructures
The aim of WP5 is providing advanced, interoperable and manageable recharging infrastructures and services to EVs. This is going to be demonstrated through the delivery of such infrastructures for DC fast recharging, battery swapping and inductive recharging and also the delivery of charging management system and smart network re-enforcement to different demonstration regions.
WP6 EV technology validation
The objective of WP6 is to validate the performance of EV technology in terms of durability,
Funding
Results
The Green eMotion analysis of the business models for public charging infrastructure revealed that public charging is a difficult business case today. The results lead to the conclusion that the business case of public charging as standalone business can only be profitable within such mid-term business scenarios in case of highly frequented charging stations. Hence, the charging stations need to be located at points of interest, so that people are willing to pay for the usage and usage time is short enough to allow for several charging events per day. An option to improve the business case of public charging is the combination of different businesses. Examples are advertising, parking in a parking lot, or to use charging to attract people for other services like shopping, cinema, eat & drink etc.
The project has defined and demonstrated a European framework that connects all stakeholders for a seamless and cost-efficient electromobility ecosystem.
- User Acceptance needs to be increased by demonstration of interoperability and convenient usage of EVs to the customer. Incentives for reduction of the EV price like direct purchase incentives or sales tax reduction are also effective measures.
- Environmental impact of EVs is mixed. The low noise level and the local zero emission are good arguments for buying an EV. EVs were found to be more environmentally friendly than ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles for a majority of impact categories, in particular those with global effects like global warming potential but not in all categories.
- EVs in fleets show a positive business case already today.
- Both, private customers and fleet operators will require a coherent mobility plan of the cities that considers the mobility needs of all stakeholders.
- The open access to all existing public charging infrastructure is a mandatory prerequisite for the mass market roll-out of electromobility. Therefore we need an ICT system that allows roaming between all partners, meaning that EV drivers can use public charging infrastructure independent from the owner or operator.
Other results
Grid reinforcement costs can be reduced by so called smart charging measures. Congestion in low voltage lines from a multitude of charging EVs might occur in the nearer future. Especially for home charging and employer charging most customers will start charging in the same time frame and therefore cause a high peak demand. Smart charging controls the charging process in a way that such a peak is avoided. E.g. with time dependent power tariffs, users can be motivated to accept smart charging.
EVs improve integration of renewable energy sources (RES) into the electricity grid. With a high number of EVs connected to the grid, Smart EV management approaches might become an important feature to prevent curtailment of RES or the need to activate reserve power production. Both will contribute to relevant CO2 savings.