Electric vehicles previously an unfulfilled goal of the automobile industry are increasingly thought of as the industry’s future. Several new products are due to enter the market in the coming months from the micro-hybrid technology already available in some models to full electric cars encompassing many hybrid electric technologies in between.
This trend has been spurred by action at the European level. The challenges of climate change energy security and increasing oil prices prompted European politicians to set stringent targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 in comparison to 1990 levels. In response car manufacturers have become more inventive opening up new technological innovations in areas such as batteries which have made electric vehicles increasingly viable.
Ahead of a new European Commission White Paper on the future of transport to be released this spring the FIA European Bureau has prepared a new policy paper highlighting that ‘eMobility’ – a term referring to vehicles which rely on plug-in electricity for their primary energy – is the keyword dominating the debate. The paper concludes that the deployment of eMobility will depend not only on the specific technologies to be adopted “…but on the ability to organise and manage operations of a complex landscape of players: car manufacturers battery producers mobility service providers energy suppliers and distributors and institutions.”
On the likelihood of consumer uptake of electric vehicles Luca Pascotto Mobility Director for the FIA European Bureau says “Demand for low carbon vehicles will depend on several factors for example the sensitivity of oil price the diffusion of a recharging stations network the cost of batteries and the user-friendliness of new technologies while adding that For consumers the move from a conventional car to a more electrically based mobility is not an automatic shift particularly if users are not actively involved in the process and if they are not assisted in understanding the meaning and advantages of these new technologies.”
The FIA European Bureau paper ‘Towards E-Mobility: The Challenges Ahead’ is available here.
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/fia-news-emobility-for-the-eu/
Original Publication Date: Thu 24 Mar 2011
