European Green Cars Initiative

EGCI Public Private Partnership

ERTRAC is deeply involved and strongly supports the Public Private Partnership set up by the European Commission for the European Green Cars Initiative.

The European Green Cars Initiative is one of the three Public Private Partnerships (PPP) of the European Economic Recovery Plan announced by Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, on the 26th of November 2008. The objective of the initiative is to support Research & Development on technologies and infrastructures that are essential for achieving breakthroughs in the use of renewable and non-polluting energy sources, safety and traffic fluidity. It is a key initiative at the European level to tackle the environmental challenge of road transport while at the same time boosting the global competitiveness of the European automotive industry. Despite its name the Green Cars Initiative is not only focusing on passenger cars: the topics covered include research on long distance trucks, on optimization of internal combustion engines, on bio-methane use, and on logistics and co-modality. However a main focus has been set on the electrification of road transport.

Beside providing loans through the European Investment Bank, the PPP European Green Cars Initiative is making available a total of one billion EURO for R&D through jointly funded projects of the European Commission, the industry and the EU Member States. For a rapid implementation of the PPP EGCI, the instruments of the 7th Framework Programme were chosen, and an Ad Hoc Industrial Advisory Group was established as a high-level forum for a strategic dialogue between the European Commission and the involved industrial sectors. The industry is represented by selected industry members from the following European Technology Platforms:

ERTRAC, whose Chairman, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Steiger, is the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Industrial Advisory Group

EPoSS, the European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration

SmartGrids, the European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future

experts coming from the logistics sector, selected from EIRAC, the European Intermodal Research Advisory Council

For more information, visit the website www.green-cars-initiative.eu

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EGCI multi-annual Roadmap

The Ad Hoc Industrial Advisory Group has prepared a multi-annual Roadmap and long term strategy including Electrification of Road Transport, Long Distance Truck, and Logistics and Co-Modality. It can be downloaded on the documents page of the EGCI website: http://www.green-cars-initiative.eu/documents

For any question about the PPP EGCI, the ERTRAC Secretariat can be contacted.