2016-2017 Green Vehicles

Call summary

Scene Setter

The European Green Vehicles Initiative (EGVI) represents an essential component of road transport research and innovation. It includes research, technological developments, innovation and demonstration in support of improvements in energy efficiency of road transport vehicles and the use of new types of non-conventional energies in road transport such as electricity, CNG and LNG, renewable and tailored fuels. All this is also aimed at achieving a positive impact on health issues due to polluting and noise emissions, particularly in urban environments.

The scope of the EGVI activities include both advanced power-train technologies and new vehicle architectures, weight reduction, improved aerodynamics and rolling resistance and component development for alternative fuel vehicles. Concerning new forms of energy, the interfaces between the vehicles and the recharging infrastructure will also need to be taken into account with particular attention to standardisation issues. Demonstration activities will play an essential role in ensuring a proper and timely deployment of the new technologies.

This call has been defined taking into account the other calls and initiatives where the Transport Challenge is concerned, particularly the calls on ‘Mobility for Growth’ and ‘Smart Cities and Communities’, and the ‘Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2’ joint undertakings. Multi-sectorial research involving other research and innovation areas such as Energy and Environment coupled with research on new materials, advanced production and Information and Communication Technologies will be encouraged, particularly in fields such as advanced energy storage systems and interfaces between vehicles and energy recharging infrastructures.

In addition to the topics of this call, a topic on materials allowing affordable weight reduction of high-volume vehicles and its components, taking into account the entire life-cycle (NMBP 08–2016), is included in “Nanotechnologies, Advanced materials, Biotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing” under “Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies” (LEIT).