Total investments in electric car R&D projects per component co-funded by Member States and the EU (the pie chart shows total budget of projects co-funded by the EU) (Credit: EU, 2013)A JRC report on research, development and demonstration (R, D&D) projects on electric cars in the EU, with a total budget of €1.9 billion ($2.49 billion), with 65 percent of the money coming from public funding, finds that increased exchange of information and more coordination between projects would result in a better leverage of the investments. Collected data allowed also the development of an electric mobility visualization tool, called EV-Radar, which shows an interactive map of electric vehicle research projects in Europe.
The report “Paving the way to electrified road transport—Publicly funded research, development, and demonstration projects on electric and plug-in cars in Europe” lists more than 320 projects covering the period 2007-2015 which received EU or national public funding, and with a total budget of more than €1 million. It’s the third in a series of JRC reports that deal with aspects of electric mobility in Europe. It aims to assess the potential gaps in the European R, D&D landscape and provide recommendations for the European Electromobility Observatory launched by the European Commission early this year.
According to the report, electrified vehicles will be a key technology for future urban commuting, improving urban air quality and reducing dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. Electric mobility is part of the alternative fuels mix promoted in the “Clean Power for Transport” legislative package launched by the Commission on 25 January 2013. The package aims to facilitate the development of a single market for alternative fuels for transport in Europe in order to break the over-dependence of the European transport on oil, which currently accounts for 94%.
The report concludes that a single European market for electric vehicles can only happen based on a coordinated approach and level playing field for all key-players. Currently, projects listed in the report are publicly co-funded are not evenly distributed across Europe. e. The largest number of projects is co-funded by EU15 countries. Almost 80% of private and public investments cover R&D projects. A large share of R&D projects is co-funded by the European Union through different programs.
Among the R&D projects, the highest amount is dedicated to research in energy storage, controls and the vehicle body and architecture field reflecting the need to address major barriers for large scale EDV diffusion such as “range anxiety” and cost. In Member States, there is uneven distribution of projects related to different components that are subject to research and development. While almost all MS invest in vehicle (body and architecture) projects, fewer of them dedicate funding to components such as energy storage, electric motor, controls, thermal management, and chargers.
