The NeMo Project – Network for Electro-Mobility – is reaching its conclusion this month after three years of research and development, and the consortium partners gathered in Barcelona to present their results at a Final Conference and Exhibition on 19 September.
Launched in October 2016 with support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, the NeMo Project brought together a range of key players in the electromobility value chain in order to answer a simple question: how can we make electric vehicles more attractive for everyday needs?
While the technologies behind battery-electric vehicles and charge points are proven by now, upscaling raises a number of challenges for users and service providers alike. Can users rely on charging networks for all usages from commuting trips to long journeys? Can different charging networks developed independently be made accessible to drivers? How can power grid operators adjust to surges and shifts in demand?
Through three years of research, development and testing, NeMo’s 19 partners came up with tentative answers to these questions critical to the future success of mass electric mobility, and presented them to some 75 eager participants hailing from electromobility roaming platforms, vehicle manufacturers, charge point and power grid operators, service providers, infrastructure operators and academia.
The full day conference programme included a thorough introduction to the Hyper-Network for Electromobility and the process of its creation, followed by technical and business demonstrations, before wrapping up with a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of electromobility. Throughout the day, a dedicated exhibition area provided more in-depth information on different aspects of the project with videos and technical posters.
The opening address was delivered by Lluis Gómez, Commissioner for Economic Promotion and Innovation for the Barcelona City Council; a NeMo partner and host of the event. The venue, a former factory in the old industrial estate of Poblenou, has been freshly renovated as a hub for clean mobility and hi-tech research that is meant to stand as a testimony to Barcelona’s commitment to electric mobility.
The morning session laid out the inner workings of the NeMo Common Information Models; the easy creation, execution and delivery of services on the Hyper-Network; as well as the smart horizontal services that NeMo has made available. Another achievement of NeMo, the Open European Inter-Roaming Protocol, which links different electromobility roaming platforms and enables cross-provider electromobility roaming seamlessly, was extensively featured, as well as the specific architecture developed for the Extended Vehicle and Neutral Server deployed via the project’s OEMs, which allow the driver to access improved services and view real vehicle data.
Going beyond the project, Andrew Winder (Manager – Clean Mobility at ERTICO – ITS Europe) outlined NeMo’s proposal for a future Business Alliance for Electro-Mobility (BAEM), a non-profit structure for vehicle manufacturers, charge point operators, service & navigation providers, public authorities & power companies, which would be the long-term operator of the NeMo platform.
For the afternoon session, conference participants were treated to a panel discussion on the future of electromobility, featuring Àngel López Rodríguez (Barcelona Regional – Urban Development Agency), Christian Hahn (Hubject), Jean-Marc Rives (Gireve), Jan Cupal (VERBUND), Ichiro Sakai (Honda), Alexander Kröller (TomTom), and Noshin Omar (Avesta Battery & Energy Engineering).
As a word of conclusion, Àngel López shared his success formula for electromobility: ‘It’s a winning equation when electromobility to the power of industry and public institutions, multiplied by people’s acceptance, is greater than zero.’
