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European Alternative Fuels Observatory

European funded projects

Cities and regions across Europe act as test beds and demonstration sites to apply and validate the technological advancements in the field of alternative fuels, often through EU-funded projects.

This section collects flagship initiatives to showcase and inspire how innovation is being applied 'on the ground', including best practices and project outputs.

Are you a coordinator of a relevant EU-funded project? Complete a form and your project will be displayed in this section.

European funded projects

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eCharge4Drivers - Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for improved User Experience

The EU-funded eCharge4Drivers project will improve the user experience as regards available charging options and services.

Specifically, it will develop and demonstrate user-friendly charging stations, smart services and charging solutions, including mobile charging and battery swapping stations. User-centric services such as route planning, booking, and charging location planning will be developed to further improve users' experience and foster e-mobility growth.

The work will start with wide surveys in 10 demonstration areas, to capture the a priori users’ perceptions and expectations as regards the various charging options and their mobility and parking habits. Based on the survey findings and after matching with the perspective of authorities, operators and service providers, the project will develop and demonstrate in 10 areas, including metropolitan areas and TEN T corridors, easy-to-use, scalable and modular, high- and low-power charging stations, low-power DC charging stations and components with improved connection efficiency and standardised stations for LEVs. All stations will offer various direct payment methods and bigger user-friendly displays. The charging stations and all actors’ back-ends will support the ISO 15118 Plug & Charge feature and will enable the standardised transfer of enhanced information in the ecosystem, thus enabling the interoperability of communication and the provision of more sophisticated services to the users before, during and after the charging process, including smart charging services. The project will demonstrate additional convenient charging options within cities, a mobile charging service, charge points at lamp posts and networks of battery swapping stations for LEVs.

Using the knowledge generated, the project will propose an EV Charging Location Planning Tool to determine the optimum mix of charging options to cover the user needs. It will conclude with recommendations for legal and regulatory harmonisation and guidelines for investors and authorities for the sustainability of charging infrastructure and services.

Participating public authorities

Urban areas

  • Grenoble-Alpes (FR)
  • Barcelona (ES)
  • Bari (IT)
  • Berlin (DE)
  • Luxembourg (LU)
  • Zellik (BE)

TEN-T

  • Austria
  • North-Italy
  • Istanbul &amspan; Western Turkey
  • Greece

Cordis link & TRIMIS link to project

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for improved User Experience | eCharge4Drivers Project | Fact Sheet | H2020 | CORDIS | European Commission (europa.eu)

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for improved User Experience | TRIMIS (europa.eu)

Project contacts (coordinator & communication manager OR contact page link)

Coordinator: Angelos Amditis, ICCS, a.amditis@iccs.gr

Communication manager: info@eCharge4Drivers.eu

Project website

Duration
-
Transport mode
Road
Transport sector
Passenger
Geographical dimension
TEN-T, Urban, Transnational
Budget

€18,405,861
EU Contribution: €14,424,526

Funded under
Coordinated by

ICCS

Greece

EV Stations 2.0 – Building up the next generation infrastructures for Electric Vehicles

The project aims to develop a set of fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructures for electric vehicles along the core and comprehensive networks in Italy. In total 45 stations will be deployed, including 180 charging points for electric vehicles, of which 90 fast charging stations (50 kW) and 90 ultra-fast charging stations (from 150 kW up to 350 kW).

A digital platform to manage the functioning of the electric infrastructures will also be set-up.By targeting the deployment of charging points which rely on 100% renewable electricity, the Action is contributing to the objectives of the European Green Deal.

This Action has been selected in the context of the CEF Blending facility Call, where the CEF support is coupled with a substantial investment by a financial institution

Cordis link & TRIMIS link to project

2019-IT-TM-0345-W | Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (europa.eu)

Building up the next generation infrastructures for Electric Vehicles | TRIMIS (europa.eu)

Duration
-
Transport mode
Road
Transport sector
Passenger, Freight
Geographical dimension
regional
Budget

Maximum EU contribution: €3,684,600

Total eligible costs: €24,564,000

Funded under
Coordinated by

Italiana Petroli S.p.A. (Italy)

Italy

SCALE (Smart Charging Alignment for Europe)

SCALE (Smart Charging Alignment for Europe) is a three-year Horizon Europe project that explores and tests smart charging solutions for electric vehicles. It aims to advance smart charging and Vehicle-2-Grid (V2G) ecosystems to shape a new energy system wherein the flexibility of EV batteries’ is harnessed. The project will test and validate a variety of smart charging and V2X solutions and services in 13 use cases in real-life demonstrations in 7 European contexts: Oslo (NO), Rotterdam/Utrecht (NL), Eindhoven (NL), Toulouse (FR), Greater Munich Area (GER), Budapest/Debrecen (HU) and Gothenburg (SE).  Going further, project results, best practices, and lessons learned will be shared across EU cities, regions, and relevant e-mobility stakeholders. SCALE aims to create a system blueprint for user-centric smart charging and V2X for European cities and regions. 

SCALE’s consortium comprises 29 cutting-edge European e-mobility actors covering the entire smart charging and V2X value chain (equipment and charging manufacturers, flexibility service providers, research and knowledge partners, public authorities, consumer associations, etc.). It is led by ElaadNL, one of the world’s leading knowledge and innovation centres in smart charging and charging infrastructure.

Contribution to EAFO

Both SCALE and EAFO have a strong focus on electric vehicles and smart charging networks. Through the observatory, SCALE could share its findings, best practices and achievements in its 13 real-live demonstrations. The project could also join the Sustainable Transport Forum to provide inputs particularly for local governments on EV charging ecosystems, as well as other stakeholders on the value chain.

Duration
-
Transport mode
Road
Transport sector
Passenger, Freight
Geographical dimension
Urban, regional, TEN-T
Budget

€ 10,000,000

Funded under
Coordinated by

Stichting ElaadNL

Netherlands

NetNetZeroCities (NZC)

Associations & Networks:

Climate Alliance, The Democratic Society, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Urban Mobility, Energy Cities, ERRIN – European Regions Research and Innovation Network, Eurocities, ICLEI, Open & Agile Smart Cities, REGEA, Resilient Cities Network, Union Internationale des Transports Publics, Viable Cities.

Research organizations:

Cartif, Cerema, Demos Research Institute, Fraunhofer Institute, Tecnalia, TNO, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Universities:

Austrian Institute of Technology, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Politecnico di Milano, TalTech – Tallin University of Technology, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Think-tanks:

Institute for European Environmental Policy.

Companies and consultancies:

Bankers Without Boundaries, Dark Matter Labs, LGI, Material Economics, Metabolic Institute, Rupprecht Consult, South Pole Carbon Asset Management.

Description:

NetZeroCities (NZC) is part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme in support of European Union’s Green Deal. NZC has been designed to help cities overcome the current structural, institutional and cultural barriers they face in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

NZC will support the EU’s Mission of “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030” newly-launched as part of the Horizon Europe programme. The project will work as a service-oriented platform supported by world-class practitioners. It will help European cities by providing them with the support and solutions they need to achieve their Net Zero goal in a socially inclusive way.

New and existing tools, resources and expertise will be developed and promoted into a one-stop platform accessible to all cities through an online portal. Dedicated services will be designed to support cities that are part of the EU’s Mission “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”. In addition, NetZeroCities will support a series of Pilots to help drive rapid learning about how to achieve climate neutrality at city scale, an run a Twinning programme to enable peer-learning.

Objectives:

  • Develop an approach to support climate-neutral transformation in cities
  • Help cities build capabilities and ways of working to advance systemic change using innovation
  • Forge a platform for cities to use for all services & expertise critical to climate neutrality
  • Facilitate a pipeline of cities accelerating towards climate neutrality
  • Deliver 100 climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030
  • Ensure that these cities act as experimentation and innovation hubs to enable all European cities to follow suit by 2050

Main/relevant project outcomes and deliverables available for download

Mission area - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu)

EU missions - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu)

Links to project

Project website: https://netzerocities.eu/

Accelerating cities' transition to net zero emissions by 2030 | NetZeroCities Project | Fact Sheet | H2020 | CORDIS | European Commission (europa.eu)

Commission announces 100 cities participating in EU Mission for climate-neutral and smart cities by 2030 (europa.eu)

Duration
-
Transport mode
Road
Transport sector
Passenger
Geographical dimension
Transnational
Budget

52 million EUR

Funded under
Coordinated by

Thomas Osdoba, EIT Climate-KIC - hello@netzerocities.eu

NextETRUCK - Efficient and affordable Zero Emission logistics through the Next generation of Electric TRUCKs

NextETRUCK provides a sustainable solution to bring zero-emission electric medium freight haulage, playing a pioneering role in the decarbonisation of vehicle fleets and accelerating sustainable market replenishment.Research organisations, business strategists, technology companies, vehicle and component manufacturers, and associations work together to advance zero-emission vehicles and ecosystems that are holistic, innovative, affordable, competitive and synergetic. To achieve its objectives, NextETRUCK will develop three pilot sites in Istanbul (Turkey), Barcelona (Spain) and the United Kingdom. 

Duration
-
Transport mode
Road
Transport sector
Freight
Geographical dimension
Transnational
Budget

€14,6 Million Total Budget of which €11,3 Million EU Contributions​

Funded under
Coordinated by

TNO - Contact person: René Corbeij (rene.corbeij@tno.nl)

Netherlands