Smart, low-cost pervasive stationary slow charging and bi-directional solutions synergic with the grid for EV mass deployment (2ZERO Partnership)

Future charging infrastructure deployment should be ubiquitous, and should parallel, with a certain level of anticipation the growth of EV sales.

Associated charging solutions should enable seamless processes that are easy, fully interoperable across European country borders and available at any time. The aim of this topic is to enable and improve massive smart on-street low-cost charging of EVs as well as improving the overall efficiency of power supply to the grid, including a space-and-time-oriented prediction and control of the global charging power demand, also enabling and improving smart home and office charging that could be explored by proposals to complement the on-street charging solutions.

Proposals are expected to address all the following aspects:

• Guarantee an exhaustive coverage of high-efficiency, low-power, low-cost on-street smart charging points considering grid infrastructure and capacity, optimisation of civil works and grid requirements for services and charging needs, including the parking patterns (charging on long- and short-term parking spaces) to reduce the need for additional buffers to stabilise the grid.
• Address users’ needs and requirements in socio-cultural contexts of different communities to incorporate daily habits, practices and ideas into the design and development of people-friendly infrastructure with emphasis on public charging (also considering smart use, while connected, of energy consuming convenience functions like cabin and battery pre-heating and cooling).
• Use statistical models of parking, traffic and grid configuration and energy flows to predict and support power supply planning on a larger scale (e.g. at least regional), along with methodologies and demonstrations to derive or calibrate such models on the basis of real traffic and behavioural data.
• People centric applications equipped with the analytical capability and Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for friendly access and use, that support the interactions related to the ratio between location, power (and its guaranteed minimum) and price for prompt decision making or pre-allocation of charging stations in line with users’ charging preferences and vehicle state of charge, also allowing charging point operators to predict power demand.
• Support and demonstration of smart and bi-directional operation in overnight publicly accessible environments to accommodate demand for long-term charging, and meeting some of the requirements of opportunistic charging types, motivating the people to optimally charge (maximising the use of renewable power) and promoting the development and use of interfaces with customized vehicle charging technology which can be preconditioned and set-up by the driver, including the pre-allocation of charging points.
• Development of innovative optimisation functions exploiting real-time access to battery information such as state of health, state of charge, capacity and power set point, which should be provided respecting any GDPR and data disclosure terms to the owners, users or other stakeholders in the value chain, such as building energy system managers, mobility and logistics service providers and electricity stakeholders.
• The developed solutions are expected to be provided on non-discriminatory terms between users and classes of users and allow the choice of the e-mobility service providers, so as to avoid consumers lock-in with a single e-mobility service provider, affiliated to specific vehicle manufacturers.
• Optimise the use of energy resources and infrastructures to cater not just for private mobility usage but also integrating opportunity use of the same infrastructure by other light duty captive fleets if their needs are compatible with the low power level.

This topic requires the effective contribution of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Furthermore, in order to achieve the expected outcomes, social innovation should be considered.

The selected projects are invited to participate to BRIDGE^[3] activities when considered relevant.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Towards zero emission road transport’ (2ZERO). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on the results to the European Partnership ‘Towards zero emission road transport’ (2ZERO) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

Destination

Clean and competitive solutions for all transport modes (2023/24)

This Destination addresses activities that improve the climate and environmental footprint, as well as competitiveness, of different transport modes.

The transport sector is responsible for 23% of CO₂ emissions and remains dependent on oil for 92% of its energy demand. While there has been significant technological progress over past decades, projected GHG emissions are not in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement due to the expected increase in transport demand. Intensified research and innovation activities are therefore needed, across all transport modes and in line with societal needs and preferences, in order for the EU to reach its policy goals towards a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and to reduce significantly air pollutants.

The areas of rail and air traffic management will be addressed through dedicated Institutional European Partnerships and are therefore not included in this document.

This Destination contributes to the following Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations (KSO):

• C: Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems;
• A: Promoting an open strategic autonomy[[ ‘Open strategic autonomy’ refers to the term ‘strategic autonomy while preserving an open economy’, as reflected in the conclusions of the European Council 1 – 2 October 2020.]] by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains to accelerate and steer the digital and green transitions through human-centred technologies and innovations.

It covers the following impact areas:

• Industrial leadership in key and emerging technologies that work for people;
• Smart and sustainable transport.

The expected impact, in line with the Strategic Plan, is to contribute “Towards climate-neutral and environmental friendly mobility through clean solutions across all transport modes while increasing global competitiveness of the EU transport sector“, notably through:

• Transforming road transport to zero-emission mobility through a world-class European research and innovation and industrial system, ensuring that Europe remains world leader in innovation, production and services in relation to road transport (more detailed information below).
• Accelerating the reduction of all aviation impacts and emissions (CO₂ and non-CO₂, including manufacturing and end-of-life, noise), developing aircraft technologies for deep reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and maintaining European aero-industry’s global leadership position (more detailed information below).
• Accelerate the development and prepare the deployment of climate neutral and clean solutions in the inland and marine shipping sector, reduce its environmental impact (on biodiversity, noise, pollution and waste management), improve its system efficiency, leverage digital and EU satellite-navigation solutions and contribute to the competitiveness of the European waterborne sector (more detailed information below).
• Devising more effective ways for reducing emissions and their impacts through improved scientific knowledge (more detailed information below).

Several levels of interactions are foreseen with other European initiatives, in particular with the Industrial Battery Value Chain (BATT4EU) partnership, the Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) partnership and the Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities, in particular:

• Joint topic “2ZERO – BATT4EU” D5-1-4 B – Innovative battery management systems for next generation vehicles (2ZERO & Batteries Partnership) (2023)
• Joint topic “CCAM – 2ZERO – Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities” D5-1-5 Co-designed smart systems and services for user-centred shared zero-emission mobility of people and goods in urban areas (2ZERO, CCAM and Cities’ Mission) (2023)