1 million e-cars on the streets until 2020 – this is the plan of the German Federal Government together with the National Platform for Electric Mobility (NPE). The current number of registrations of new electric cars in Germany for 2016 is 25.000. An increase by 34 % from 2015 to 2016 shows the great potential of this sector. In addition, public transportation plays an important role in steadily growing cities. The Federal Minister of Transport Alexander Dobrindt sees great potential for research and development especially in the fields of electric public transport and urban commercial transport. In order to fully exploit this potential, the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure supports the acquisition of electric vehicles, the establishment of the charging infrastructure and the development of municipal strategies for electric mobility. Additionally, research and demonstration projects with its funding programme for battery-powered mobility are within scope of the programme.
In the current call practical research and demonstration projects in the following fields are available for funding:
- public transport focussing on battery-powered busses including the charging technology
- freight and commercial transport as well as city logistics
- integration of renewable energies in the transport sector as well as cross-inking of charging infrastructure and electric vehicles and
- shipping and special transport
Project proposals directly integrating producers, operators and charging infrastructure, component manufacturers, energy suppliers as well as transport companies will be in favour in order to push application-oriented research.