On 19 May 2021, the Policy Learning Platform organised an online discussion on the topic of e-mobility. The aim of this meeting was to bring together all Interreg Europe projects working on e-mobility – E-MOB, EMOBICITY, EV Energy, eBussed, e-MOPOLI, PROMETEUS and SMART-HY-AWARE – to present themselves and find possible synergies. Additionally, the meeting gave an opportunity to discuss the three-part webinar series on e-mobility planned by the Policy Learning Platform for November 2021.
Each project presented their partnership, key aims, topics, achievements so far, and desired collaboration topics. The following emerged as key cross-project topics:
Public transport: Deployment of electric and hydrogen buses in urban areas, scaling-up e-bus fleets, preliminary studies for clean energy buses, public transport and the clean vehicles directive, new business models for public transport and studies on total cost of ownership. Two projects also presented policy improvements and developments: PROMETEUS has a policy improvement for deploying e-buses in Malta, and eBussed is developing a readiness indicator tool for public authorities to assess what they can change for roll-out of e-buses
- Charging infrastructure: There was significant interest in financial issues, funding schemes, and business models for charging infrastructure, as well as smart charging technology. EMOBICITY mentioned their upcoming report on charging tariffs which could be of interest for the other projects. PROMETEUS drew attention to Lazio region’s successful strong deployment of infrastructure in co-operation with the private sector. Integrating e-mobility into city planning and energy cities: Projects emphasised the importance of cross-department collaboration and expressed a desire to investigate links between e-mobility and green cities and city/spatial planning, as well as with energy communities and digitalisation, vehicles-to-grid challenges, and integration of privately-company provisions (e.g., rental e-bikes and e-scooters) into a city framework. EV Energy mentioned that within their project, Stockholm have worked on a policy improvement of combining mobility and energy policy, which could be of interest for a wider audience.
Integrating e-mobility into city planning and energy cities: Projects emphasised the importance of cross-department collaboration and expressed a desire to investigate links between e-mobility and green cities and city/spatial planning, as well as with energy communities and digitalisation, vehicles-to-grid challenges, and integration of privately-company provisions (e.g., rental e-bikes and e-scooters) into a city framework. EV Energy mentioned that within their project, Stockholm have worked on a policy improvement of combining mobility and energy policy, which could be of interest for a wider audience.
- Building trust and awareness: Projects were also interested in exploring how to involve local stakeholder groups and how to take advantage of the new environmental consciousness developed as a result of COVID, and how to ensure better acceptance through addressing safety concerns and range anxiety and providing trainings, as done by Castille y Leon, in PROMETEUS.
Impact on the grid: The connection between e-mobility, the electricity grid and renewable energy capacity was also highlighted by multiple projects as key topic. This topic has been previously explored by the Policy Learning Platform in a webinar in 2019.
As such, the top three topics were selected for the webinar series: Clean public transport, Charging infrastructure, and integrated e-mobility. Additional topics of building trust for novel clean vehicles, and green hydrogen, will also be considered for future webinars. More details will be shared later in the year, but you can sign up to our policy digest to stay informed.
