Projects to facilitate more EVs on Europe's roads

9th June 2015

Siobhan O'Gorman

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The European Commission is launching three new research projects aimed at making electromobility cheaper, more efficient and more reliable in order to facilitate more environmentally-friendly vehicles on Europe's roads. Europe will be the site for the continued development and production of EVs under these projects, which will run until 2018 and are headed by Infineon Technologies.

An international event will be held on June 9^th and 10^th in Brussels to kick-off the three research initiatives, with total funding of about €67m. 70 partners with a total of 120 researchers from 15 countries, and representatives of ECSEL Joint Undertaking, the European Union, the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will participate.

As a result of the three research projects 3Ccar, OSEM-EV and SilverStream, electrical systems used in EVs will benefit from being approximately one-fifth more compact and lighter, their range improved, and their cost lowered by about 25%. The three projects will collaborate to research and develop environmentally-friendly, safe and robust electric vehicles. The entire automotive value chain is contributing to this effort, from chip producers to car manufacturers.

In EVs, on average about 50% more electronic components and semiconductors are installed compared to vehicles featuring combustion engines. They are, therefore, more complex. Furthermore, the operating time of the electronic components in EVs is also higher. The 3Ccar project aims to further strengthen the reliability of automotive systems, despite the increasing vehicle complexity. 48 partners from 14 countries are participating in the 3Ccar Project. The research budget is set at €54m.

Through the OSEM-EV, the range of EVs will increase. The activities of the twelve partners are centred on the research of an intelligent thermal management, which includes the cooling system for the electric drive, the battery life and an efficient energy recuperation. The research budget is set at €8m.

Ten partners from five countries are working on the SilverStream project, the aim of which is the development of an inexpensive electric compact car. The research budget is set at €4.5m.

Within the European initiative ECSEL, the European Commission and the Member States have chosen twelve research projects to be promoted, with a total investment of about €710m. German companies and research institutes are involved in ten of these projects, including 3Ccar, OSEM-EV and SilverStream. With ECSEL, the European Union is pursuing the goal of significantly increasing the global market share of European microelectronics.