Features
30 aoû 21

Going for EVs? These organisations offer help

Electrification

Fleet electrification is no longer a question of if, but how. For fleet managers, that’s not an easy question to answer – especially if they’re managing a complex, international fleet. Fortunately, there are a range of organisations and associations dedicated to helping corporates shift their mobility from ICEs to EVs. Here’s an overview of some notable ones. (Let us know if we’ve missed any!)

EV100

EV100 is a global initiative by the Climate Group to bring together forward-looking companies to accelerate the electrification of mobility. The Climate Group is an international non-profit working to cap global warming at 1.5°C by halving global emissions by 2030 – turning the 2020s into the ‘Climate Decade’.

Member companies – more than 100 major companies, including CapGemini, Deloitte and LeasePlan – commit to transitioning to EVs and to offer charging infrastructure for their own fleets and their customers by 2030.

EV100 publishes insight and progress reports (here’s the one for 2021), organises events and webinars, talks to EU and national governments about modelling policy to speed up electrification, and runs specific projects in specific locations and around specific topics (e.g. promoting zero-emission vans and trucks).

Electrification Alliance

  • Target: A variety of European sectors and industries, including transport.
  • Mission statement: “Electricity for an efficient and decarbonised Europe”
  • Website: https://electrification-alliance.eu/

The Electrification Alliance brings together a number of foundations and associations from across Europe who want to decarbonise the economy, specifically by promoting electrification. Members include the Europe-wide associations of the solar and wind energy sectors, of electrical contractors, of the heat pump sector, etcetera.

The EA’s Declaration on Electrification hails electricity as a key ingredient for Europe’s decarbonised, energy-efficient, and digital future. It calls for commitments and reforms, aimed at scaling down carbon-intensive activities, and scaling up non-emitting ones – including smart grids and energy storage. Check out their #ElectrifyNow campaign, for instance.

By presenting the bigger picture with a positive outlook – covering not just transport, but also industry, buildings and heating & cooling – the EA provides a broader framework within which corporate fleets can embed their electrification plans.

AVERE

  • Members: associations promoting electromobility
  • Mission statement: “Zero-emission mobility for all”
  • Website: https://www.avere.org/

AVERE, the European Association for Electromobility, is the only European association specifically representing and advocating for electromobility. Its membership consists of various national associations across 19 countries, including highly advanced EV markets such as Norway, the Netherlands and France.

Those national associations include thousands of industry members with a commercial interest in electrification, from OEMs to SMEs; but also public, research and academic institutions.

AVERE is more than an advocate for electrification. It also offers a forum for exchanging knowledge, experience, and ideas on stimulating electromobility in Europe – notably via working groups (on infrastructure and batteries, among others) and participation in projects and initiatives in Europe and beyond.

One very practical collaborative project is the European Alternative Fuel Observatory, which offers a complete overview of the location and pricing of EV recharging throughout Europe.

Transport Decarbonisation Alliance

  • Members: pioneering countries, cities/regions and companies around the world.

  • Mission statement: “A coalition of the willing to decarbonise transport”
  • Website: https://tda-mobility.org/

The TDA was launched following the One Planet Summit hosted by French president Macron in Paris in 2017. It is a ‘coalition of the willing’, who want to accelerate the global transformation of transport towards a sustainable, low-emission, and eventually net-zero emission mobility system before 2050.

Uniquely, the TDA uses a ‘3C’ approach, bringing together Countries, Cities/regions and Companies to foster cooperation and catalyse change, creating pathways to decarbonise transport as quickly as possible. Besides various national and regional governments, TDA members include companies like Deutsche Post, Michelin and EVBox.

In so-called Communities of Interest (CoIs), TDA members collaborate to develop policy recommendations, reports, online courses and other outcomes that they find relevant. They contribute to and learn from networking, leadership and peer-to-peer learning.

CoIs include Active Mobility (i.e. walking and cycling), Urban Freight (aiming to make zero-emission commercially viable by 2025) and Zero-Emission Zones. The TDA has also developed training modules, for example the Executive Education on Transport Decarbonisation.

Eurelectric

  • Members: European electricity generators, distributors and suppliers.

  • Mission statement: “Fit for 55 – shaping the path to 2030”
  • Website: https://www.eurelectric.org/

Eurelectric is the federation of the European electricity industry, representing more than 3,500 companies in over 32 European countries, drawing upon more than 1,000 industry experts. Its members include national energy authorities, and private companies such as Chargepoint, GE and EY.

Based on its in-house expertise, the federation develops policy positions and opinion, provides representation for its industry in policy-making and public-affairs circles, ultimately to contribute to the competitiveness of the electricity industry, and to help it contribute to sustainable development.

Policy areas include decarbonisation and electrification (distinctly), information on markets, distribution and consumers, plus digitalisation and Fit for 55 (the EU’s ambition to cut emissions by 55% by 2030). Among its many resources, Eurelectric also offers podcasts and webinars, for instance on advanced charging solutions.

The Platform for Electromobility

  • Members: European organisations from across civil society, industries, and transport modes, all committed to electromobility.

  • Mission statement: “Electromobility can make transport cleaner and cheaper”
  • Website: https://www.platformelectromobility.eu/

The Platform unites more than 40 organisations committed to promote electromobility, to collectively develop the solutions to electrify European transport, and to promote those solutions in EU institutions and member states. Members include OEMs like Renault Nissan and Tesla, energy companies like Vattenfall and Enel, and electrification specialists like EVBox and ChaDeMo.

By providing a forum for collaboration, the Platform aims to drive the development, implementation and support for sustainable policies, programmes and initiatives regarding electromobility within the EU.

The Platform produces reports and policy papers (including on boosting zero-emission vehicles in corporate and urban fleets). Its six thematic Working Groups focus on battery production, benchmarking charging tariffs, and solutions for electrifying corporate fleets, among other topics.  

Eurocities

  • Members: A network of more than 200 cities in 38 countries, representing 130 million people.
  • Mission statement: “For a Europe where cities are genuine partners with the EU to create a better future for all.”
  • Website: https://eurocities.eu/

The remit of Eurocities is much wider than electric vehicles. It includes goals in terms of prosperity and inclusiveness; but climate change, digitalisation, public health, smart cities and mobility provide plenty of overlap with the trend towards electrifying transport.

The organisation has published a position on CO2 emissions standards for cars and vans in cities, and supports the annual European Mobility Week.

Electrification Coalition

A U.S.-based organisation specifically dedicated to electrifying that country’s mobility, with a decidedly geopolitical take on the transition:

“The vulnerability of global oil supply lines and infrastructure has saddled the U.S. with the burden of securing the world’s oil supply – threatening our economic and national security (…) Every American recession over the past four decades has been preceded by—or occurred concurrently with—an oil price spike.”

The Coalition and its sister organisation SAFE (Securing America’s Future Energy) want to reduce America’s dependence on oil – currently powering 92% of America’s transport system – by offering analysis, case studies, policy reports and other resources, at federal and state level. One example is the Wisconsin EV Policy Bootcamp, with several webinars offering detailed information about the situation and the prospects in that state.

Image: Shutterstock

Authored by: Frank Jacobs
New Energies
Europe