AVERE – has a vision for a Europe that relies on electromobility

Philippe Vangeel
June 5, 2019
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AVERE, The European Association for Electromobility, is the European association that promotes electromobility and sustainable transport across Europe. Founded in 1978 – our network of members includes e-mobility users, industry from along the entire e-mobility value chain, as well as academia. We are therefore the only European association representing all relevant stakeholders and advocating for electromobility at both EU and national levels.

AVERE’s main aim is to support the development and promotion of electromobility across Europe. As a recognised and established partner with the key European Institutions, we are able to effectively achieve our main objective by advising policymakers in the creation and development of legislation impacting the European emobility sector.

Our extensive network of experts makes us the reliable voice, listened to by relevant government officials, while our presence at the heart of the EU provides a real space for enabling the practical implementation of innovative ideas and concepts developed within the network.

As such, AVERE acts as the hub for emobility in Brussels making it the developing ground of innovative ideas, technologies and strategies.

AVERE’s flagship e-mobility symposium the International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS32) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Lyon France from 19-22 May 2019. EVS32 is the global gathering of academia, industry and policymakers, presenting the latest research, discussing strategy and policy, showcasing new products as well as finding business opportunities with start-ups and major companies.

The timing of our major event coincides almost perfectly with the grassroots climate change movement taking place all over the world. In Europe the mass amount of youths have been protesting for social justice and for more action on climate change for four weeks in a row. Predominantly inspired by Greta Thunberg – the young Swedish climate change activist who made passionate climate speeches in Katowice and Davos – these climate protesters have swarmed Brussels, demanding immediate, effective action by political leaders to honour the promises made in Paris in 2015.  

Both social and environmental concerns have been at the core of AVEREs mindset since their creation in 1979. In fact, AVERE sees global electrification as a key solution for the climate and environment as it drastically reduces energy consumption, it helps achieve full decarbonisation of the electric power grids and lastly, it helps increase air quality and reduce noise in cities.

The debate around the life cycle impact of EVs versus traditional fossil fuel cars is consistently brought up in the media. However, if we are able to electrify fleet’s in a smart and efficient way, the benefits that electrification can bring both to the consumer and industry outweigh delaying the transition further.

At the same time, it is extremely important to safeguard European jobs, however, this cannot be done at the expense of supporting traditional outdated technologies over the cleaner more efficient solutions of the future. If Europe does not accelerate the shift to electromobility we will lose out in the global race to the likes of China and the United States.

Within a few years electric vehicles will be both better and cheaper to purchase and own. Europe must be part of this future.

The most important lessons to take away from EV users are that

  • The customer satisfaction for EV users is much higher than any comparable car or technology.
  • Once the price is right, and the cars are available locally, EVs will be the preferred choice.

For Europe, the size of job creation opportunities in the EV ecosystem including shared and connected mobility is greater than the number of existing jobs related to combustion engines that will be lost anyway.  Let’s be part of the future!

Within this global and European context, we are very happy to host this year’s edition of EVS in France.

France is an extremely relevant country to host EVS32, especially when looked at in the context of the Macron’s recent announcement stating he would earmark 700 million euros aimed at strengthening France’s commitment to scaling up their EV battery production efforts, combined with the fact that France has a strong emobility industry, with ambitious national policies for electrification. (1mill PEV by 2022 etc).

We are also thrilled to have the leaders of French emobility (Renault, EDF and Enedis) as our main sponsors for EVS32. All three together demonstrate that the future mobility ecosystem requires cooperation and innovation across the relevant industries – from EV manufacturers, the power sector, and grid companies.

At AVERE we believe in transparency and providing consumers with facts about the changing, while, at the same time trying to keep it simple, engaging and relevant.

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www.avere.org

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Philippe Vangeel
Secretery General, AVERE

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