Industry proposes research agenda for greening cars

Publication date: 08 May 2009

The automobile sector has recommended a research programme for developing cleaner technologies under the EU's "green cars" initiative. EU-funded projects should focus on four areas, it says: mobility and transport, energy and environment, safety and affordability and competitiveness.

Green public procurement should be considered as a way of promoting the rapid uptake of technologies developed under the initiative, trade associations CLEPA and EUCLAR said on Thursday. Research projects should be coordinated with R&D activities outside Europe because of the global nature of the car industry, they added.

The EU will allocate €5bn to innovation projects over the next four years, including €1bn from the EU's seventh research framework programme and industry. The rest will come from the European Investment Bank. The public-private partnership was announced last year as part of a major economic recovery plan.

*Meanwhile, from this month all new vehicles must receive an EU certificate of conformity showing compliance with technical requirements laid down in type approval rules. The aim is to make it easier to register vehicles bought in another EU country. The certificate also includes environmental performance data, which are "increasingly necessary for vehicle taxation schemes", the European Commission said on Thursday.

Follow-up:

 CLEPA-EUCAR: European automotive industry outlines R&D priorities for EU Green Car Initiative (31.1 KB)

Source: ENDS