Page 44 - European Energy Innovation - spring 2018 publication

44 Spring 2018 European Energy Innovation

TRANSPORT DECARBONISATION

Research needs to tackle road

transport decarbonisation

By Josef Affenzeller, EGVIA Secretary General

The EU is facing various Green Vehicles Initiative Association • No compromise electric urban bus
important challenges to (EGVIA), with the support of the three system
be tackled in the decades European Technology Platforms
to come, in particular the ERTRAC1, EPoSS2 and SmartGrids • Sustainable electrified long-
decarbonisation of the European updated its roadmap “Electrification distance trucks and coaches
economy. The transport sector of road transport” extending the
represents today almost a quarter of outlook until 2030. The task of the For each of these big initiative, the
the total Europe’s greenhouse gas roadmap is to set the scene, give clear updated version of the document
emissions and road transport accounts objectives, and list the milestones that aims at providing recommendations
for about 80% of all GHG emissions require funding or policy actions at for research and innovation activities,
related to transport. European level. It provides research, under Horizon 2020 but beyond –
development and innovation also in view of the activities to be
To tackle this challenge, ambitious roadmaps for the electrification of the undertaken under the FP9.
goals have been defined by the White different vehicle categories (passenger
Paper for transport published in 2011, cars, 2-wheelers, buses and coaches, All future research needs have been
calling for a CO2 reduction from the trucks). defined following a user-centric
transport sector by 60% in the year approach, with the objective of
2050 compared to 1990 levels. This The task force defined four big extending vehicles’ range, reducing
was complemented with the signature initiatives that should drive research the cost while improving the
of the COP21 Agreement in Paris on and innovation in the upcoming years: charging procedures of vehicles
clean air quality in cities. (both in terms of time and charging
• Operation system dependent EVs in convenience) in order to increase the
To identify the research needed to the urban environment attractiveness of these vehicles for the
tackle the decarbonisation challenge, end users.
with the assumption of CO2 neutral • User-friendly affordable LEV/EC
electricity production, the European passenger car + infrastructures The full version of the roadmap is

1 European Road Transport Advisory Council
2 European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration

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