The European Commission has announced its support to the cross-European electromobility initiative, Green eMotion, by collaborating with the other 42 partners from the industries, utilities, electric car manufacturers, municipalities, universities and technology and research institutions. The European Commission will make available 24.2 million euro from the 7th Framework Programme, in a total budget for the project estimated at 41.8 million euro.

The aim of the electromobility initiative Green eMotion, which is receiving funding by the European Commission is to exchange and develop know-how and experience in selected regions within Europe as well as facilitate the market roll-out of electric vehicles in Europe. This four year long project is part of the European Green Cars Initiative launched by the European Commission, which is funded under the Seventh Research and Development Framework Programme.

As highlighted by Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, this initiative is part of the efforts made by the European Commission in order to break transport's current oil dependency and allow mobility to grow, as set forth in the Transport 2050 Roadmap presented by the European Commission in 28 March 2011. This is a project, added Commissioner Kallas, which tackles some of the practical problems and real bottlenecks for cities and companies who want to bring electric vehicles to the market.

Green eMotion Initiative. Main Objectives

• Compare the twelve ongoing regional and national electromobility initiatives in eight different EU Member States
• Compare the different technology approaches
• Contribute to the identification of the best solutions for the European market

The project will cover different types of electric vehicles, the development of Smart Grids, innovative Information and Communication Technologies solutions, and urban mobility concepts. An interoperable platform will be created to enable the different actors to interact and to allow for new high-value transportation services and innovative billing systems. It will contribute to the improvement and development of new and existing standards for electromobility. Green eMotion will demonstrate this interoperable electromobility framework in all participating regions and will thus provide the basis for its replication across Europe.

The partners in the Green eMotion initiative are the industrial companies Alstom, Better Palce, Bosch, IBM, SAP and Siemens, the utilities, Dansk Energi, EDF, Endesa, Enel, ESB, Eurelectric, Iberdrola, RWE and PPC, the automobile manufacturers BMW, Daimler, Micro-Vett, Renault and Nissan, the municipalities Dublin, Cork, Copenhagen, Bornholm, Malmö, Malaga, Rome, Barcelona and Berlin, the universities and research institutions Cartif Cidaut, DTU, ECN, ERSE, Imperial Collge, IREC, LABEIN, and TCD and the technology institutions DTI, FKA and TÜV Nord.