About

The European Green Cars Initiative is one of the three Public Private Partnerships (PPP) of the European Economic Recovery Plan announced by the President of the European Commission on the 26th of November 2008. The objective of the initiative is to support R&D on technologies and infrastructures that are essential for achieving breakthroughs in the use of renewable and non-polluting energy sources, safety and traffic fluidity.

Despite its name the Green Cars Initiative is not only for passenger cars. Under the Green Cars Initiative, the topics include research on trucks, internal combustion engines, bio-methane use, and logistics. However a main focus is on the electrification of mobility and road transport. Beyond providing loans through the European Investment Bank, the PPP European Green Cars Initiative is making available a total of one billion EUR for R&D through joint funding programmes of the European Commission, the industry and the member states. These financial support measures will be supplemented by demand-side measures, involving regulatory action by Member States and the EU.

For a rapid implementation of the PPP European Green Cars Initiative, the instruments of the 7th Framework Programme were chosen, and an Industrial Advisory Group was established as a high-level forum for a strategic dialogue between the European Commission and the involved industrial sectors. Due to the horizontal character of the topic, various services of the European Commission work tightly together in this PPP: DG Research and Innovation, DG Information Society and Media, DG Mobility and Transport, DG Energy, DG Environment and DG Enterprise and Industry. The industry is represented by industrial members the European Technology Platforms European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration (EPoSS), SmartGrids and other stakeholders. They have made recommendations for the annual FP7 Calls for Proposals of the European Green Cars Initiative since 2009. Their advice is based on a continuous process of strategic stakeholder consultations, consisting of workshops and multiannual implementation plans which rest upon the long-term roadmaps and strategic research agendas of the European Technology Platforms. The Industrial Advisory Group is chaired by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Steiger from Volkswagen.

Three rounds of annual calls for proposals have been launched within the PPP European Green Cars Initiative since July 2009, and more than 50 collaborative research projects have been started.

The activities of the PPP European Green Cars Initiative are supported by the EU-funded Coordination Actions “PPP Implementation for Road Transport Electrification” (CAPIRE) and “Information and Communication Technologies for the Fully Electric Vehicle” (ICT4FEV).