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EU-PROJECTS
The European Union supports research and development on hybrid and electric
vehicles through its R&D Framework Programmes. Following strong interest in these
technologies in the 1980s and 1990s, their economic failure in the market due to
limited user acceptance was a sobering experience for the industry. This disillusion led
to a reduction in R&D activities by European industry and research institutions at the
beginning of this decade. As a consequence, only two projects with Austrian partners
looking at these topics have been realised under EU Framework Programme 6.
Improved battery technologies, and sophisticated energy and power management
using improved control electronics, have paved the way for the economic success of
hybrid vehicles in recent years. This has led to a sharp increase in R&D efforts and
industrial investment in electric and hybrid vehicle technologies. With the launch of the
EU Framework Programme 7, the electric drivetrain has become a far greater focus of
interest and of R&D activities.
Nevertheless, the European Commission decided to wait for the results from the
projects running under Framework Programme 6 before opening the call in Framework
Programme 7 (FP 7) for new hybrid and electric vehicle projects. Accordingly, these
areas were not included in the first FP 7 call for proposals, but were open for
submissions under the second FP 7 call. Several Austrian research institutions with
electric and hybrid vehicle projects participated in this second FP 7 call. As the
evaluation of this call was not concluded before this brochure went to press (end of
September 2008), the following pages present projects from the preceding Framework
Programme 6.
Fig.: AVL List GmbH
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