As the only representative company from Slovenia, Hidria presented itself at today’s event European Green Cars Initiative in front of the European Parliament in Brussels. The organisers, including the European Road Transport Research Advisory Council (ERTRAC), organised this event to warn the European Members of Parliament, the commissioners, high European officials and the general public about the urgency of reducing the harmful emissions of road transport. Corporations and development institutes, joined in ERTRAC SIG (ERTRAC Supporting Institutions Group): AVL, Bosch, CentroRicerche FIAT, CONCAWE, Continental, FEV, Frauenhofer LBF, Hidria, IFP EnergiesNouvelles, Renault, Ricardo, Siemens, Valeo, Volkswagen and Volvo presented their innovative solutions for green mobility in electric cars.
In the morning programme, some renowned European corporations presented their electric cars and innovative solutions for electric cars in front of the European Parliament. In its exhibition booth, Hidria presented its laminations for hybrid and electric cars. Laminations for electric and hybrid cars are produced by Hidria in Slovenia and Germany, with special technologies for blanking and joining stator and rotor packages and guaranteed maximum performance of electric motors.
Following the morning presentation of the state-of-the-art solutions for future cars, today’s event within the European Green Cars Initiative continued with a working lunch, upon the invitation of the European MEPs, at which the participants emphasised the key importance of close co-operation of the industry and the European institutions. The European Green Cars Initiative and the co-operation within the Eighth Framework Programme are good examples of such co-operation. In the afternoon, the participating partners from renowned European corporations gave more detailed presentations for the members and officials from the European Parliament and the Commission of the projects covering electrification of cars, successfully developed by EU companies in the recent years.
The European Green Cars Initiative, in which Hidria participates, was launched in November 2008 ad part of the European plan for economic revival. This year, the European Commission initiated the Pan-European Electromobility Demonstration Project within the European Green Cars Initiative, with the aim of evaluating the consumer behaviour and use patterns, raising awareness on all types of electrical technology and testing the innovations in the field of standardisation for electric cars.
Today, the European automotive industry is one of the key European industries and a global leader in the development of clean and energy-efficient technologies. Since the transport sector in the European Union currently generates about a quarter of CO2 emissions and is largely responsible for reduced quality of atmospheric air and the occurrence of the related health problems, the business sector and the leading European institutions are aware that the European industry will have to find a new approach in the future, based on clean and energy-efficient cars. The number of cars in the world is forecast to increase from 800 million to 1.6 billion until 2030. Because of the doubled size of global vehicle fleet, the technology will have to be changed, so that it will be possible to ensure sustainable mobility and meet the goal of reducing CO2 emissions in the transport sector. The studies forecast that the short-term and medium-term internal combustion engines will probably keep the dominant position in vehicle production but that the market share of electric cars in new cars sold will increase from 1 to 2 percent in 2020 to 11 to 30 percent in 2030. The anticipated percentage of hybrid vehicles is 2% in 2020 and 5 to 20 percent in 2030.