EU’s industry ministers have agreed on the need to develop a standardized system for recharging electric cars throughout Europe by 2010, with France and Germany leading requests for EU finance to fund pilot projects.
The EU’s industry ministers gave their support on Tuesday to the European Commission’s strategy for clean and energy-efficient cars, which was published last month.
The strategy aims to promote the uptake of green cars without prejudice to technology, but it outlines specific action for electric cars, which it reckons are still missing a European framework.
The ministers said it was a priority to develop “a harmonized solution for the interoperability between electric cars and the charging infrastructure.”
Harmonization across Europe is of “key importance in order to ensure that electric cars can be recharged, domestically or at public station points without difficulty within the territory of the EU and with the use of any electric car charger” by mid-2011, a joint agreement stressed.
Such a standardised and easy-to-use system “is a prerequisite for consumer acceptance and, subsequently, the mass market uptake of electric cars.”
Currently, international efforts to create standards for electric cars are fragmented, and each region is working to become the leader in standard-setting by developing their own solutions.
