European consortium set to accelerate cross-border e-mobility

ABB helped create the world’s most-comprehensive electrical vehicle fast-charging network in the Netherlands as well as similar systems elsewhere in Europe.

Now, five partners including ABB have formed a public and private consortium of companies and organizations with a shared passion for making sustainable, reliable long-distance e-mobility a reality. After all, e-mobility’s benefits extend beyond individual countries to the width and breadth of the continent.

Put simply, the intention of this cooperative project is to develop a corridor of e-mobility fast chargers across central parts of the Trans-European Road Network.

We’re convinced that such a network will help demonstrate that e-mobility is a viable option for travelling long distances across the continent, an important hurdle that must be overcome in order to help convince consumers to make the switch to cars that aren’t powered by fossil fuels.

Connecting the continent

This 8.4 million euro effort, called European Long-distance Electric Clean Transport Road Infrastructure Corridor, or ELECTRIC, is cofinanced by the European Union’s Trans-European Transport Networks, an infrastructure policy aimed at connecting EU member states between east and west, north and south.

ELECTRIC supports the installation of a corridor of high-quality fast chargers, in this case the ABB Terra Series, along key European motorways by the end of 2015.

Here’s a key differentiator of this program: It’s going to be data-driven. We’ll analyze technical and user requirements, expectations and challenges.

Once we gather the facts and figures, we believe that we can help dispel any so-called “range anxiety.” The point is, if we plan infrastructure carefully, nobody need worry about getting stuck without a place to charge up their vehicles – whether they’re heading down the road for a much-needed vacation or traveling for business.

Open access

There are a couple of important distinguishing features of this European effort. For one, it’s going to be an open-access fast charging corridor. That means everybody with an electric vehicle should be able to use it.

And the fast chargers will be situated along major motorways connecting Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. It’s going to broad, too, with a total of 155 chargers. Up to 30 are foreseen for the Netherlands, 23 will be installed in Denmark and 35 are headed to Sweden. Germany, by far the biggest of the countries and the one where distance presents the most obvious challenge, is in store for 67 of the ABB devices.

Fortunately, the five partners in this consortium represent a broad base of interests and expertise, something that will be essential in ensuring this project is a success.

Broad group of interests

In addition to ABB, which designs its fast-charge solutions in the Netherlands, there will also be the e-mobility operator and retailer Fastned B.V., the Danish e-mobility operator Clever A/S; Sweden’s public utility, Öresundskraft AB, which also operates an e-mobility system, and the German Testing and Certification Institute, or VDE Prüf-und Zertifizierungsinstitut GmbH.

Our consortium expects this corridor will help accelerate the proliferation of electric vehicles not only in the countries where the network will be created, but also serve as a model for other regions and EU member states.

The focus is on interoperability, the practicalities of setting up sustainable infrastructure and network planning, as well as the concrete rollout of the infrastructure.

By the way, Trans-European Transport Networks, known among Europe’s transportation planners and experts as TEN-T, helps finance large infrastructure projects across all transport sectors, from air to rail and road to rivers and oceans, as well as logistics and intelligent transport systems.

TEN-T’s primary focus is helping enhancing competitiveness, job creation and cohesion within the European Union. It is managed by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency on the behalf of the Directorate General for Transport (DG MOVE) of the European Commission.

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