According to the European Environmental Agency, just in 2016 road transport was responsible for almost 72% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Europe. Changing the way vehicles transport people and goods is therefore imperative in the fight against climate change, and Electric Vehicles are part of the solution. However, users nowadays are still reluctant to using such transport modes. The newly-launched European project eCharge4Drivers aims at making the charging of Electric Vehicles more user friendly by capturing users’ perceptions and expectations on the various charging options and their mobility and parking habits.
“At the moment one of the main reasons why people do not widely use Electric Vehicles is because of the access to charging services and the length of time needed to charge these vehicles. For local and business use, the number of electric vehicles is growing, but for an individual or a family who occasionally needs to use the car to go a long way for business or on holiday, the low density of charging stations outside cities can often be a problem. Drivers have to plan their journeys quite carefully if they’re going away from their local area with an electric vehicle”, says ERTICO’s Clean Mobility expert Andrew Winder.
Launched on 17 June, eCharge4Drivers will foster the user acceptance of Electric Vehicles by advancing and standardising charging solutions and payment systems in Europe and imprving the overall Electric Vehicle charging experience within cities and for long trips.
Together with 32 partners from 12 European countries, eCharge4Drivers will develop and demonstrate pilot projects in 10 areas across Europe, including metropolitan areas and Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridors. The project will provide more sophisticated services to users before, during and after the charging process, including smart charging services and demonstrate additional convenient charging options within cities, a mobile charging service, charge points at lamp posts, networks of battery-swapping stations for LEVs and a transportable charging station service to cover temporary charging needs.
Using the knowledge generated, the project will propose an Electric Vehicle Charging Location Planning Tool to determine the optimum mix of charging options to cover all user needs, as well as recommendations for legal and regulatory harmonisation, and guidelines for investors and authorities for the sustainability of charging infrastructure and services.
With its role in eCharge4Drivers, ERTICO continues is journey and work towards achieving ultra low emission mobility in urban and extra urban areas by 2030.
For more information about ERTICO’s 2030 vision on Clean Mobility, click here.
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About eCharge4Drivers
eCharge4Drivers was launched in June 2020 and will run until May 2024. eCharge4Drivers is co-funded by the EU under the H2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 875131).
Contact
Project Coordinator
Angelos Amditis a.amditis@iccs.gr
Villy Portouli v.portouli@iccs.gr
Communication and dissemination coordinators
Sabina Asanova SAsanova@polisnetwork.eu
