What will fuel tomorrow's mobility?

Good session today at the European Parliament in Brussels on the fuels and alternative drive trains of the future that will decarbonise the transport sector. Short presentations from:

• Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (Secretary General Hydrogen Europe)
• Marie-France van der Valk (Chair of the Platform for electro mobility)
• Dr. Sandra Wappelhorst (ICCT Europe)
• Erik Jonnaert (Secretary General of ACEA) 

Some key highlights/takeaways (that I mostly agree with): 

- multiple fuels and drive trains to be expected in the near future (2030) 

- the panel unanimously expected investment/competitiveness in various fuels and drivetrains as “no one size fits all” in terms of cars, trucks, aviation or indeed marine 

- however, I agree with Marie VD Valk, that longer term dispersed investment is inefficient and a dual fuel mix will have emerge 2040/2050

- current take up is still not significant (“we are waiting for the cars to come”) but all key indicators (model availability, cost, infra and interoperability/ customer experience) expected to fall in place in the early 2020s

- probably the biggest surprise for me, no mention of biofuels as any sort of short or long term contributor! 

- grid capacity (or rather inflexibility) and lack of infrastructure highlighted as key barriers to wide scale adoption of both electrification and indeed hydrogen 

- the EU minister spoke in the words of “not overnight” “not disruptive” “slow change” “technology neutral” on drive trains; he seemed to be looking to drive short term emission reduction from modal shifts, ICE efficiencies and connectivity. Which in my opinion was not bold or imaginative enough and indeed I don’t believe enough to meet our Paris commitments or truly decarbonise transport (cont. below)

- so while policy support appears to be moving in the right direction, so far leaves a fair bit to be desired - panel agreed on need for short term incentives (similar to the renewables sector) on 1) vehicle purchase as well as 2) infrastructure to improve initial take up and business/economic models. 

- city level policies vs national policies are helpful/needed but significantly uncoordinated both between each other and between member states. 

KPMG's wider perspective can be found here: https://home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2018/06/future-fuel-mix-impact-on-the-uk-energy-system.html

Or please just get in touch!

Nat