“The EU needs to speed up electrification and be leader in clean transport”, said Henrik Hololei, Director-General at DG MOVE, at the launch of the Platform for Electro-Mobility on the 21st April in Brussels. The new platform unites businesses and stakeholders from the road, rail and electricity supply sectors as well as civil society and cities to promote the benefits of sustainable electrification of all transport modes in Europe. AVERE is one of the founding members and ensures the necessary attention for Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs) in the Platform.

A the launch, the Platform also announced four new members: the European Solar Energy association SolarPowerEurope, the European Wind Energy association WindEurope, city network Eurocities and electric car maker Tesla Motors .

Panelists from DG Clima, Council Presidency the Netherlands, Alstom, Renault-Nissan and the City of Manchester agreed that the Energy Union’s goal of making Europe a resilient, energy-independent and low-carbon economy cannot be achieved without electrifying the transport sector.

Ø  Kitti Nyitrai, member of cabinet of Climate Commissioner Arias Canete, stressed that stricter standards for fuels and vehicles were needed to drive electrification as the closest to market alternative technology for transport.

Ø  The introduction of ambitious CO² standards for cars and vans in 2025 is the key driver to more electrification, on EU level but also for EU Member States, confirmed Petrouschka Werther, Acting Director at the Air Quality & Noise Department, Ministry of Infrastructure, the Environment & Climate Change, the Netherlands

Ø  Olivier Paturet, General Manager Zero Emission Strategy at Renault-Nissan emphasized that “every electric vehicle is a good investment” for Europe’s competitiveness and cleaner cities, an investment policies should value more.

Ø  Philippe Delleur, Senior Vice President for Public Affairs at Alstom agreed that investments into electro-mobility should be further valued, through innovative R&D the already largely electrified rail-sector can share technologies in multi-modal solutions with other sectors, for example inductive charging solutions for buses.

Ø  Excellent commercial experience and high customer satisfaction with electric buses was reported by Rafael Cuesta, Head of Development and Innovation Transport for Greater Manchester, encouraging cities to further invest in cleaner public transport solutions.

The discussion showed that electro-mobility offers an unequalled solution to make Europe’s transport more efficient, less dependent on imported energy, low carbon, clean and quiet.

Platform Members presented key aspects of electrification of transport, which the Commission needs to include in its Communication on the Decarbonisation of Transport announced for the Summer 2016 – preparing the shift to sustainable electrification of transport. These key aspects are:

• Help cities to purchase electric vehicles, set up interoperable infrastructure and better cross-modal information to encourage electric vehicle-sharing solutions and foster intermodality, i.e. the combined use of different modes of (electric) transport in urban areas. A legal clarification is needed of how Public Transport Operators and Authorities can sell electricity. Electro-mobility needs to be better integrated into Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning and related public support should be earmarked.
• To enable the European railsector to contribute further to electro-mobility deployment, a dense rail network in Europe needs to be maintained. The European Green Public Procurement Directive should allow based on environmental footprint and life-cycle-costs, and public transport operators should be allowed to reuse recovered energy (from braking) in the most efficient way, for example resell it to the grid.
• Smart charging of electric vehicles can greatly benefit EV owners in reducing their electricity (charging) costs as well as their total costs of ownership, as well as adding stability and reliability to the electricity system. Regulatory regimes should incentivize market parties to invest in and use smart charging, and clear roles and actor definitions are needed to ensure interoperability. Member States should be encouraged to incorporate smart charging measures into their National Plans, mandated by the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, as well as in their urban mobility policies.
• Standardisation solutions for an internal market of electro-mobility and its services require the establishment of smart metering, i.e. stationary or on-board metering, improving collaboration between grid operators and end-users, strengthening system reliability and providing new business opportunities. An interoperable electro-mobility service market in Europe requires, in addition to pay-as-you-go solutions, a roaming system that can be established between charging point operators, but should also allow electricity roaming, i.e. allowing customers to choose a (renewable) energy supplier.
• Set incentives for the support of light electric vehicles, electric cars and vans through extending the Clean Vehicles Directive to light and utility vehicles where appropriate such as electrifying road maintenance, waste disposal and social services transport vehicles as well as setting more ambitious criteria on purchase; encouraging Member States to grant EV use incentives such as CO² taxation at registration, VAT exemptions, fuel taxation, access restrictions to Low Emission Zones or parking benefits. The European Market for light electric vehicles will benefit from a better adapted and simplified technical regulations’ frameworkand better harmonised safety rules as well as reduced VAT and adapted infrastructure solutions.
• An adequate, interoperable charging network to enable electric vehicle use EU wide through quick and open implementation of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive that does not create barriers for private investors and acknowledges competing charging solutions for example through multichargers.

Participants concluded that the electrification of surface transport will enable Member States to meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2030; and addresses the public health crisis arising from urban air pollution. This cannot be done without a  European overarching strategy for clean and energy-efficient electro-mobility.  Find the Platform’s full position paper here