An Overview on the Automotive/Road Transport Strategy of Europe through Horizon 2020 Programme
As the biggest R&D programme in the world with a budget of about €80 billion, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (H2020) supports various research topics to enhance Europe’s technological and social developments for sustainable global leadership of the European technology. In the scope of these topics, the transportation is allocated €6.3 billion for the period of 2014-2020.
European Commission (EC) has great efforts to develop sustainable, efficient, clean, and safe transportation system and modes in all Europe. These goals have been identified according to current requirements and future needs of transportation.
EC has allocated €6.3 billion to fund novel technologies in the context of Mobility for Growth, Automated Road Transport and Green Vehicles topics in H2020. Research and innovation of novel technologies under Mobility for Growth will integrate transport means and infrastructure into a friendly European transport system of smart connected mobility and logistics while Automated Road Transport is about demonstration of automated driving systems for passenger cars, trucks and urban transport, and on the underlying digital infrastructure to ensure necessary level of safety, reliability and efficiency. With all that, transport area addresses the green technology and green vehicles as challenges of improving in energy efficiency, the use of new types on non-conventional energies, advanced powertrain technologies, new vehicle architecture and interfaces between the vehicle and recharging infrastructure with Green Vehicles topics.
Furthermore, Europe has four main priorities in the transport calls under the programme:
- Making transport more sustainable: resource-efficient transport that respects the environment.
- Making transport and transport systems seamless: better mobility, less congestion, greater safety, and security.
- Keeping transport competitive: the European transport industry as a global leader.
- Making transport research responsive: socio-economic research and forward-looking activities for policy-making
A deeper view to these priorities could enable us to see that there are three fundamental challenges EC tries to combat with:
· Clean Mobility
In 2014, EU agreed on a clear commitment: to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions of at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels across all sectors of the economy. [1] At this point, transport is one of the key sectors. Through this strategy, EC aims:
o To increase the efficiency by making digital technologies, smart pricing, shift to lower emission transport modes
o To speed up the deployment of alternative energy for transport by advanced biofuels, renewable energy, synthetic fuels, and electrification of transport
o To move towards zero emission vehicles for use in road and urban areas
By the way, the number of the mobility modes are subject to change through micromobility vehicles and sharing concept as e-scooters, e-bikes, monowheels and other small sized vehicles on European streets and also with increasing the number of electrical vehicles. Now, there are about 750.000 battery electric vehicle in streets of Europe and millions of micromobility vehicles. However, we cannot think that clean mobility topic is only about transport modes, we should look at the use of material types on vehicles, production process, infrastructure and energy needs and their effects in environment and human life. However, decarbonization and emission reduction from road transport are the main drivers for the electrification of vehicles, investment in electric vehicles and systems is rising.
· Safe Mobility
The figures say that 25,300 people still lost their lives on EU roads in 2017 and another 135,000 were seriously injured.[2] For this reason, the EC wants to develop new models of vehicles with advanced safety features such as advanced emergency braking, lane keeping assist system or pedestrian and cyclists’ detection systems etc. Through these improvements, EC foresees saving up to 10,500 lives and avoiding close to 60,000 injuries over 2020-2030.
· Connected & Automated Mobility
The Commission is aiming to make Europe a world leader for fully automated and connected mobility systems with providing a new level cooperation between road users. In this regard, the strategy focuses on improving the mobility towards fully autonomous trucks, urban shuttles, passenger cars, delivery cars in 2030s and connecting all vehicles to internet by 2022 to enable communication of vehicles by each other and environment.[3] Additionally, total €750 million has been established for automated vehicles and digitalization of transport under H2020 Programme.
In the light of these facts, Europe has started to establish the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) which is the network of Europe’s transport infrastructure backbone and it is foreseen that TEN-T network will be completed by 2030 and sets standards for transport infrastructure to ensure efficient, smart and sustainable transport.
Statistics about Countries in Automotive/Road Transport Area under H2020 Programme
EC policies affect the countries one by one to develop novel technologies for all European industry. In here, every country is shining out in different areas. In transport area, we see that Germany, France, Italy, UK, and Spain have significant effects thanks to their industrial, research and policy power on different transportation sectors.
Data retrieved from ETNA (European Transport Network Alliance 2020), which is the network of the Horizon 2020 National Contact Points for “Smart, Green and Integrated Transport”, shows us totally 1610 projects has been funded by €4.935 million in all transport area (aerospace/aviation, waterborne/maritime, automotive/road, rail, urban mobility/smart cities, freight/logistics) until 2020. [4] The graphic at the below shows EU contribution by country in transport topics (The first circle shows requested funding rate and the second one is the funding rates).
Most of the funds goes to aerospace/aviation category by 79%. In this sense, Europe research intensely aerospace/aviation sector for the new technologies and process developments which is a brilliant area for the rest of the world.
For all transport sectors, entities from France, Germany and Italy are in the top three. France has been funded by €930.6 million in 574 projects with 1641 entities, Germany has been funded by €913.4 million in 659 projects with 1793 entities and Italy has been funded by €573.9 million in 591 projects with 1411 entities.
The performance of Turkey is totally €18.7 million from 50 projects with 61 entities.
While looking at the automotive/road transport category, total funding rate is €768 million in left graph.
The first three countries are Germany, France, and Italy, too. Germany has been funded by €208.3 million in 97 projects with 414 entities whereas France has been funded by €91.8 million in 77 with 202 entities and Italy has been funded by €89.9 million in 68 projects with 204 entities. As a result, Germany is the leader of automotive research in Europe.
The numbers for Turkey are 18 entities from 14 projects with €7.9 million funding rate.
The difference comes from Germany’s power of the automotive sector. Most of the biggest automotive OEMs are located in Germany as Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen and also world’s biggest and leading automotive suppliers such as Bosch, Continental and ZF are headquartered in Germany. Beside these local companies, some foreign automotive companies as Ford, Hyundai, Kia, and Opel have their European headquarters in Germany. As well as the industry, also research organizations as Fraunhofer and Aachen supports automotive industry.
The figures[5] of Germany from 2017 shows that +60% R&D growth in Europe created by German automotive sector and 5.5 million passenger vehicles produced making Germany Europe’s leading production site.
In addition to these information, Ara?t?rma ve Mühendislik, Ford Otosan, Heksagon Mühendislik ve Tasar?m, Imecar Elektronik, ?stanbul Okan University, T?rsan Treyler and Tofa? Turkey are key entities from Turkey had funded in H2020 Programme in the automotive/road category.
On the other hand, the type of entities that are funded is also an important figure to grasp the distribution of funds on right graph according to type of entities.
The most funded entities are large companies (PRC, SME=N) by 52%. Research organizations (REC) has been funded by 20%, higher and secondary education establishments (HES) by 14%, SMEs (PRC, SME=Y) by 14, public bodies by 2.7%.
Distribution shows us that EC has mostly funded projects that provides close to market solutions for transport which are above TRL6. Maybe, we can see more core research funds for automotive/road category in Horizon Europe which will be established for years of 2021-2027.
Example Projects
After all these figures and details, I want to give some project examples that have fund by EC through H2020 program.
The consortium consists of 13 partners from 6 countries and started in 2015 to 2018 with €6.7 million fund under the call topic of GV-5-2014 Electric two-wheelers and new ultra-light vehicle concepts.
The project that is coordinated by Virtual Vehicle Research GMBH focuses on developing a modular platform for L-category vehicles. Through the systematic approach for efficiently designing, developing and building a wide range of L-category vehicles from more close-to-the-market to radically new ones, the project will comprises a set of modular electrified powertrain components and subsystems for PHEVs and BEVs, modular bodies and an integrated modular co-simulation platform to guarantee re-usability, flexibility and sharing of components as well as subsystems for L-category vehicles.
You can visit the project website from here.
The consortium consists of 20 partners from 8 countries and started in 2016 to 2019 with €7.8 million fund under the call topic GV-8-2015 Electric vehicles’ enhanced performance and integration into the transport system and the grid.
The project that is coordinated by Institute of Communication and Computer Systems provides tools, models and services that enable the seamless provision of electromobility services. NeMo’s vision is to create a Hyper-Network of new and existing tools, models and services which will provide seamless interoperability of electro mobility services, creating an open, distributed and widely accepted ecosystem for electro-mobility. NeMo will boost the market share of EVs by enabling increased accessibility to charging infrastructure, ICT services and wider B2B interconnectivity. NeMo will facilitate increased service availability, better planning and more secure electric grid operation, by making backend data and services accessible to the right actors and bringing down digital (interfaces) and physical (location) barriers.
You can visit the project website from here.
The consortium consists of 37 partners from 12 countries and started in 2017 to 2021 with €35.9 million fund under the call topic ART-02-2016 Automation pilots for passenger cars.
The project that is coordinated by Volkswagen AG also includes OEMs as Audi, BMW, Fiat, Daimler, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Renault, Toyota, Volvo, PSA and Opel. So, this project’s importance is demonstration of project results on lots of different types of vehicles by different OEMs.
L3Pilot tests the viability of automated driving as a safe and efficient means of transportation on public roads. It will focus on large-scale piloting of SAE Level 3 functions, with additional assessment of some Level 4 functions. The functionality of the systems will be exposed to variable conditions with 1,000 drivers and 100 cars across ten European countries, including cross-border routes. The technologies being tested cover a wide range of driving situations, including parking, overtaking on highways and driving through urban intersections.
You can visit the project website from here.
The consortium consists of 11 partners from 8 countries and started in 2018 to 2022 with €4.9 million fund under the call topic of LC-GV-01-2018 Integrated, brand-independent architectures, components and systems for next generation electrified vehicles optimized for the infrastructure.
The project that is coordinated by Vrije Universiteit Brussel will develop and demonstrate a novel self-sustained compact battery system, consisting of:
- A smart modular battery pack, which has excellent internal thermal conductivity properties, a refrigerant cooling system and thermal storage system (heat buffer) capable to absorb excess heat due to fast charging, and which is thoroughly insulated from the outside;
- An advanced battery thermal management system capable to keep the battery temperature effectively within the optimal window and to prevent overheating (and battery degradation) due to fast charging.
SELFIE will significantly increase user acceptance of EVs by enabling fast-charging; offering significant cost reductions and elimination of range anxiety compared to other propulsion technologies.
You can visit the project website from here.
The consortium consists of 15 partners from 10 countries and started in 2019 to 2021 with €3.9 million fund under the call topic of LC-GV-02-2018 Virtual product development and production of all types of electrified vehicles and components.
The project that is coordinated by AVL LIST GMBH aims at providing its scientific and technical contribution: to develop and demonstrate a generic virtual component and system integration framework for the efficient development of all kinds of future electrified powertrain systems: An electrified powertrain is a highly complex mechatronic system, and meeting all functional and performance requirements efficiently demands a highly integrated development approach.
You can visit the project website from here.
What we have done as Farplas
As Farplas, we had submitted 12 projects under the H2020 Programme in 2020. 2 of them has been accepted. 6 of the all submitted projects are related with automotive/road transport topics as electric vehicles, connected car, electric vehicle battery development, lightweight and material improvement. Now, these 6 projects are under the evaluation process and we hope that we will start projects to enhance European road transport technology with our partners.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_16_2545
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/road/news/2018-05-17-europe-on-the-move-3_en
[3] https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/3rd-mobility-pack/3rd-mobility-pack-factsheets-automatedconnected.pdf
[4] https://bnm4eks.rtu.lv/EU34/summary.html
[5] https://www.gtai.de/resource/blob/64100/817a53ea3398a88b83173d5b800123f9/industry-overview-automotive-industry-en-data.pdf