Electromobility road

FACT SHEET NO.: Cat-No.7 / Subcat-No.7.1-1

7. Research and innovation

7.1 Technology: vehicles

Electromobility road

The TPM 'Electromobility - road' describes the fostering of electric road vehicles. This especially means the support of research and development leading to an increase of efficiency, safety and reliability of vehicles with electronic propulsion. An implementation of this measure is expected to increase the number of electric road vehicles, including passenger as well as freight vehicles.
In this context passenger road vehicles include motorized private as well as public transport vehicles (buses and coaches). In contrast, within the electrification of road freight vehicles this assessment focuses only on light-duty vehicles (LDV) used in city logistics, hence long-haul trucks propulsions are expected to remain based on internal combustion engines (ICE) for the foreseeable future. [1]
Electromobility encompasses semi- and full hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles, while this TPM focuses the last two types of vehicles. The following assessment will not describe policies concernig the instalment of a charging infrastructure, whereas these are considered separately.

- DIRECTIVE 2009/33/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles (EU) [7]
- European Green Cars Initiative (EGCI) Public-Private Partnership (EU) [1]
- German Federal Government’s National Electromobility Development Plan (DE) [3]

The objective is to accelerated the market introduction of electric vehicles to achieve:
- climate protection
- reduction of local emissions and improve the air quality
- noise reduction
- decrease oil dependency
- increase energy security
- strengthening the motor-vehicle manufacturing industry, and thus the whole economy [3]

Likely smaller distances because of lower distance range.

Shortest route instead of fastest route.

- Higher well-to-wheel energy efficiency of electrical propulsion (2010 30%) compared to a combustion engine (18-23%) [4] (Well-to-wheel: life-cycle assessment for transport fuels and vehicles, which includes fuel production and processing as well as the vehicle operation)
- The energy efficiency depends on the type of electricity generation. [5]
- For the tank-to-wheel efficiency a range from 60-80% is given. [9] (Tank-to-wheel: life-cycle assessment for transport fuels and vehicles for the vehicle operation)

[1] European Commission (2011): European Green Cars initiative public-private partnership multi-annual roadmap and long-term strategy; Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union
[2] European Commission (2011): Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the sound level of motor vehicles; COM(2011) 856 final
[3] German Federal Government (2009): German Federal Government’s National Electromobility Development Plan
[4] Schill, Wolf-Peter, Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (2010); Wochenbericht des DIW Berlin Nr. 27-28/2010
[5] Bickert, Kuckshinrichs (2011): Electromobility as a technical concept in an ecological mobility sector? An analysis of costs; 9th International Conference of the European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE 2011): Advancing Ecological Economics - Theory and Practice June 14–17, 2011, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
[6] The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (January 5th, 2010); Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010
[7] Directive 2009/33/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles
[8] PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2007): Impact assessment on a new approach for the cleaner and more energy efficient vehicles directive proposal, Annex 3 - Vehicles technologies performances comparison
[9] Hacker et al (2009): Environmental impacts and impact on the electricity market of a large scale introduction of electric cars in Europe - Critical Review of Literature, ETC/ACC Technical Paper 2009/4
[10] Althaus, Gauch (2010): Vergleichende Ökobilanz individueller Mobilität: Elektromobilität versus konventionelle Mobilität mit Bio- und fossilen Treibstoffen, Life Cycle Assessment and Modelling Group, Technologie und Gesellschaft, Empa, Dübendorf
[11] Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) / International Energy Agency (IEA) (2012): EV City Casebook. A look at the global electric vehicle movement.
[12] Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung - ISI (2011): Gesellschaftpolitische Fragestellungen der Elekromobilität. Karlsruhe
[13] Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtentwicklung (2012): Zentrale Ergbenisse der sozialwissenschaftlichen Begleitforschung in den Modellregionen - Roadmap zuur Kundenakzeptanz. Referat U43, Innovationen für eine nachhaltige Mobilität. Berlin