The European Battery Alliance has reached more than 500 members from the industry three years after its foundation. At the European Conference on Batteries, politicians and entrepreneurs discussed the future of battery production in Europe with a prominent guest from California.

In order to comply with the goals of the Paris Climate Protection Agreement, the EU wants to tighten the CO2 limits as part of the upcoming Euro 7 emissions standard.

The share of all-electric passenger cars and plug-in hybrids has reached a record high in Europe – due to Corona. Almost every tenth new car registered in the EU in the third quarter was electric to an extent.

Honda has joined the CO2 pool of Tesla and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in the EU, according to an official document from the European Commission. The Honda e registrations appear insufficient to reduce Honda’s overall fleet emissions.

The EU project NEXT-E with 252 fast-charging stations will soon be connected to Hubject’s eRoaming platform Intercharge. This involves 222 fast chargers with 50 kW and 30 HPC stations with 150 to 350 kW charging capacity in seven Eastern European countries.

The EU is contributing over 54 million euros to several transport projects with alternative drive systems. Funding is being provided for projects in Spain, Italy and France so far. The scheme is a rolling call.

To secure the supply of raw materials such as lithium or rare earth in Europe, the EU Commission launched the European Raw Materials Alliance today. ERMA already includes 150 companies as well as non-governmental organizations, associations and governments.

Hubject and Ubitricity have decided to collaborate across Europe. All future public charging points in Europe that will be operated by Ubitricity will automatically be available on Hubject’s eRoaming network.

The Chinese automotive group SAIC has joined the Volkswagen Group’s CO2 pool in the EU with its brands MG Motor and SAIC Motors Europe. This is according to an official document of the European Commission.

The European Parliament has voted for the inclusion of CO2 emissions from maritime shipping in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to decarbonise naval transport. Now the EU Parliament is to begin negotiations with the EU states on concrete legislation.

The European BATTERY 2030+ project is gaining momentum as the research initiative launches seven projects with a total budget of 40.5 million euros from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program this September.

Germany apparently wants to use its EU Council Presidency to promote e-mobility. In addition to the mandatory construction of hydrogen filling stations, fast-charging stations and a uniform payment system will also be promoted.

It is looking like the UK is to remain with EU regulation on CO2 emission standards even after leaving the European Union at the end of this year. A new consultation points out as much and is open for comments until 21 August.

A group of eleven transmission system operators from nine EU countries presented a concept for a transnational hydrogen transport infrastructure. A network is planned which will be gradually expanded from the mid-2020s to 2040 to form a transport system with a length of 23,000 kilometres.

EU project BIG-MAP wants to significantly accelerate the speed of battery development while keeping an eye on sustainability. 34 partners aim to intensify data exchange and cooperation and operate within the broader framework of the BATTERY2030+ initiative.

18 European companies and organisations have formed a coalition, the European Clean Trucking Alliance (ECTA), to call for the decarbonisation of road freight transport in the EU. A similar initiative is forming in the USA – driven by several states.

The eCharge4Drivers project is to conduct demonstrations across key cities in the EU to understand better consumers’ perspective on EV charging infrastructure. As one of 32 stakeholders, ABB will test new DC charging stations to EU standards.

Today the European Commission has adopted the EU Strategy for Energy System Integration and Hydrogen. The former tackles charging infrastructure and grids, while the H2 Strategy focusses on long-haul and heavy-duty vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure.

EU states as well Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland subsidise fossil fuels with at least 137 billion euros annually, as research from Investigate Europe shows. Germany is the biggest contributor with fossil fuels subsidies of at least 37 billion euros annually.

The EU-funded project COBRA (CObalt-free Batteries for FutuRe Automotive Applications) aims to develop next-generation cobalt-free batteries. The project also aims to eliminate the need for other critical materials.

The European Commission supports the establishment of charging stations for electric vehicles in Schleswig-Holstein through the German state. At least 1,500 additional charging points are to be created in Germany’s northernmost federal state and up to six bus depots are to be equipped with charging stations.

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) is also relying on hydrogen as part of the conversion of its bus fleet. After TMB had ordered a total of 23 articulated battery-electric buses from Solaris and Irizar in February, a tender for the purchase of the first fuel cell buses has now been launched.

The newly founded Norwegian company Morrow Batteries plans to build a battery cell factory for electric cars. In the final stage of expansion, the factory will have a capacity of 32 GWh. The first of the four planned expansion stages, each with 8 GWh, should be completed in 2024.

A new EU project called ASTRABAT has been created to push forward with the development of solid-state battery cells. The aim of the project is to create such cells for electric vehicles and other applications in Europe. The project consortium comprises 14 partners from eight European countries.

The EU Commission has apparently drawn up initial proposals for an economic and climate protection package in the transport sector worth up to 100 billion euros. Among other things, the plans outline a purchase premium for ‘cleaner cars’. There is apparently still some dispute about which cars should be included.

The latest CAM data for the electric car sector from Jan to April 2020 paints an uneven development. The study notices a strong increase in electric vehicles sales in Europe in general, the UK in particular, with an increase in PHEV cars in Germany.

After first giving us his polarising observations on how not to make it in the business of charging infrastructure in last week’s guest contribution, the mobility consultant and former Hubject CEO Thomas Daiber now delivers the five biggest Do’s for growth and lasting success.

Deficient business models and a hardware-intensive struggle for locations: Looking back, the former Hubject boss Thomas Daiber sees the ramp-up of the e-mobility charging infrastructure as a permanent turning into dangerous dead ends.

ACEA, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, has published the registration figures in the EU for buses, trucks (from 3.5 tonnes) and vans in 2019 by type of drive. While the figures for buses and trucks have more than doubled, the electric vehicle segment has grown much more slowly.

In Europe, an electric car is responsible for almost three times less CO2 over its life cycle than a comparable petrol or diesel car, Transport & Environment has determined and published a corresponding calculation tool.