invest north east england

Monday 1st February

One North East and major European partners join forces over electric vehicle development In a unique joint effort, 19 European cities and regions, 17 major European vehicle manufacturers and 12 European electricity providers – together with leading research and IT organisations and companies – have today submitted a project proposal coordinated by the city of Rotterdam on the deployment of electromobility across Europe.

The EVA (Electric Vehicles for Advanced cities) consortium answered the call for proposals for an integrated EU demonstration project on electromobility published last 30th of July by the European Commission as part of the Green Car Initiative for economic recovery.

The EVA consortium consists of the major actors in the sector. If funded by the European Commission, it will help to integrate electric vehicles in the urban environment and to create a more sustainable urban mobility, thereby accelerating the market roll-out of electric vehicles across Europe. The project will contribute to an increased number of electric vehicles on European roads, and will provide a demonstration and research platform which gathers experience from the deployment of over 9500 electric vehicles.

EVA addresses the challenge of inserting electric vehicles in the urban environment to support the objectives of an efficient and sustainable urban mobility system integrating all modes of transport.

With over 14,000 charging points installed in EVA cities, the proposal offers the possibility of demonstrating different vehicle-to-grid interaction scenarios and maintenance facilities. The project would also accelerate the progress of the development of smart grids for electromobility and a common platform for related ICT services.

EVA proposes the establishment of the largest ever European demonstration on electromobility and would assess for the first time on such a scale and in real life conditions the impact of electric vehicles on users behaviours, the mobility networks and grids. This necessary step will further support the definition of standards, recommendations, scenarios and roadmaps for the sustainable deployment of electromobility.

By helping to create a dynamic common market for electromobility products and services, the EVA public private partnership will make an important contribution to economic recovery in Europe.

Chris Pywell, One North East Head of Strategic Economic Change, said: “This would integrate North East England into the largest European electric vehicle research programme to date and we are pleased to be sharing expertise with other leading European centres.
“The proposals from the EVA Consortium would greatly increase the number of electric vehicles on Europe’s roads and accelerate the development of key technologies like Smart Grids.”

The 19 Demonstration sites are:
ARD – Amsterdam/ Rotterdam, BAR – Barcelona, BER – Berlin, LON – London, NBA – North Brabant, STO – Stockholm, ROM – Rome, EDI – Edinburgh, HAM – Hamburg, LIS – Lisbon, LJU – Ljubljana, LYO – Lyon, MAD – Madrid, MIB – Milano/ Brescia, NEE – North-East England, PAR – Paris, PIA – Pisa, POI – Poitou-Charentes, VIB – Vienna/ Bratislava.

The 17 Vehicle manufacturers and automotive companies include:
BMW AG, Fiat Research Center, Daimler, Duracar, Heuliez, MAN, Mitsubishi R&D Europe, Nissan, Opel, Piaggio, PSA, Renault, Volvo Technology.