Special Report: EVUE - "Enabling electric vehicles to prove themselves in the street"

"Ultimately, electric cars will be the dominant technology, so the sooner cities look into factors related to their development, the more prepared they will be when these cars reach a level of industrialisation,"explains Matthew Noon, Lead Partner in the EVUE project and representative of Westminster City (Greater London). This is the premise that led to the creation of EVUE (Electric Vehicles in Urban Europe), a new URBACT project launched in December 2009 and that has ten partner cities to date. Among them are pioneering cities, such as Stockholm (Sweden), which has fifteen years of experience with electric fleets used by municipal staff and businesses. Oslo (Norway) has set the goal of having 200 public charging stations by the end of 2010. In May 2009, London announced an ambitious plan to have 100,000 electric vehicles "as soon as possible". For others, the challenge resides in implementing national development strategies at a local level. This is the case of Madrid (Spain), Frankfurt in Germany, and also Beja and Lisbon in Portugal, which are also members of the European consortium EVA (Electric Vehicles for Advanced Cities), which gathers 23 cities, automobile manufacturers, electricity suppliers, and research institutions. Yet, in the image of EVUE partner cities such as Katowice (Poland), Suceava (Romania) and Zografou (Greece), a lot remains to be done in Europe for electric vehicles to become a reality in the urban environment.

Objective 1: "Convince users to put electric vehicles in the street"

The benefits of electric cars for cities are known. These vehicles provide a significant solution to the issues of air quality, CO2 emissions and noise pollution. And, they enable cities to reconcile themselves with cars over the long term. "Cities need a functional public transport system, combined with biking and walking infrastructures. But some trips, such as going shopping, will always require an individual means of transportation," says Matthew Noon, who has been planning public transport systems for ten years. He first worked in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, where he comes from, and since 2006 for the Municipal Council of Westminster, which is one of Greater London's 32 districts.

"For the time being, we are in a vicious circle: consumers will not be convinced until electric cars have gone through the paces in the streets." They are a technology disruption, so development projects are primarily led by States and automobile manufacturers. "Cities will be the priority area of implantation, which it why it is up to municipalities to build the bridge between electric vehicles and consumers."

For Matthew Noon, the first step consists of putting the vehicles in the street, to prove to inhabitants that these cars meet their needs in terms of performance (autonomy, safety, speed of electrical charge, etc.) and utility (passenger capacity, boot size, etc.). Setting up a municipal fleet that is clearly marked "electric" can be the first step. But the investments are hefty: London estimates that it will need €69 million to finance its plan to have 25,000 charging stations in 2015. The cost will be divided among the municipality, the State and private partners. "Because the initial investment for cities is large, it is necessary to work upstream on a long-term electric vehicle development strategy."

Create the conditions needed to develop an electric vehicle market

As part of their local action plan, the EVUE partner cities will be working on three key elements of this strategy:

• A strategy for developing charging infrastructure, including the choice between three existing technologies (slow, standard and quick), planning in the urban space (in the street, in underground parking lots, in city outskirts, etc.) and in homes, but also the necessary issue of electrical power production.
• Incentive policies to support the demand and aid to purchase vehicles that can be implemented in addition to governmental measures (bonuses, tax credits). Cities have a number of levers available to them, such as free parking or granting reserved priority parking. Oslo allows electric vehicle drivers to use bus lanes. London already exempts them from the fee to enter the city centre's paying zone and has plans to subsidise charging stations for carpooling associations.
• Communication and marketing. For Matthew Noon, it is indispensable "to avoid the pitfall of coercive measures". The success of electric vehicle fleets and how long they last in time will depend on how cities and their partners market them, for example by giving them a strong brand or linking them to IT services. London, for instance, plans on having charging stations that will communicate with users in real time.

Once the population has taken to electric cars, it will also be important to ensure the economic viability of projects. "At a time when a lot of cities are facing financing problems, the business model chosen by public infrastructures is a major issue that has yet to be explored in depth and that we need to begin discussing now."

Different directions in different cities

For Matthew Noon, "there are no good practices, but choices or directions to take that correspond to different situations." Stockholm's experience demonstrates that quick charging stations are not justified in long-term parking areas or in business parking lots where generally vehicles park for several hours. "What we are trying to do in EVUE is to give the keys to tailor electric vehicle development to each city, depending on its needs."

In its local action plan, the Portuguese municipality of Beja (34,000 inhabitants) is planning, for example, to use electric vehicles to boost its entrepreneurial tissue with several possibilities. For example, the university could develop a dedicated mechanics program and the city could make a fleet available to tourists in order to boost a new green tourism offer in the region's vineyards.

"URBACT's approach of sharing ideas and dissemination is perfectly adapted to the issues cities are facing regarding the development of electric vehicles," Matthew Noon concludes. "I am convinced that, whatever the maturity of their project, all the cities will learn from EVUE, even if the implementation may be longer term for some of them."


Read more:

• EVUE – URBACT website