A new initiative to make advanced, clean vehicles christened the “Electric Vehicles Initiatives” was launched on Friday at the Paris Motor Show by a consortium including the International Energy Agency (IEA) and eight countries including China, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
According to the Paris-based intergovernmental energy agency of rich industrial countries, IEA, the project which was initiated at the Clean Energy Ministerial in July in Washington received useful inputs and impetus from discussions during the IEA’s Advanced Vehicle Leadership Forum. The Forum convened a two-day roundtable on Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) at the Paris Motor Show, involving 75 experts and high-level representatives from 15 countries and from a wide range of areas including governments, automobile and battery manufacturers as well as utility companies.
IEA, in a statement, said the governments discussed a range of issues pertaining to achieving rapid market development of EV/PHEVs on the road by 2020. This target would put global EV/PHEVs stock on a trajectory, if maintained, to exceed 200 million by 2030 and one billion by 2050. This trajectory is a key element for the entire global economy to achieve the G-backed, IEA Blue Map scenario target of halving carbon dioxide emissions in 2050 compared to 2005 levels.
Global cooperation
The IEA Executive Director, Mr. Nobuo Tanaka, said “this initiative will help to create the enabling environment to meet international targets, track progress and ensure long-term success for EV/PHEVs. The EVI will provide a platform for global cooperation in the development and deployment of electric vehicles. Participating countries have agreed to (i) launch a pilot cities programme to promote electric vehicle demonstrations in urban areas and share information on progress and outcomes, (ii) increase information sharing on funding levels and other features of research and development programme and (iii) glean and share information on electric vehicle deployment targets and related indicators, as well as best practices and policies, to enable rapid progress towards these targets.
The EVI will soon set off specific activities in search of these three areas, with more detailed plans to be presented at the Electric Vehicle Symposium-25 conference in Shenzhen, China in, IEA said.
