Nextgen vehicles: Innovative zero emission BEV architectures for regional medium freight haulage (2ZERO)

Projects’ results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Provide innovative, competitive and affordable zero tailpipe emissions vehicles architectures for regional medium freight transport and distribution full electric N2 and/or N3 category vehicles (VECTO vehicle group 1, 2 or 3, i.e. with Gross Vehicle Weight >7.5 t), with prototype(s) fully validated for a zero-emission driving range of at least 200 km under driving conditions comparable to VECTO regional and urban delivery mission profiles, with strong synergies of urban and suburban operations.
• Demonstrate the vehicle’s functionality and performance in real world conditions, with innovative freight transport and logistics use cases, at least matching the vehicle dynamic performance of non-zero tailpipe emission vehicles and maximising productivity in terms of usage (t/km transported per year).
• Provide fleet managers with ZEV-specific, flexible, managerial tools (e.g. adapted to the characteristics of vehicles and infrastructure) supporting the seamless integration of zero tailpipe emissions vehicles into fleets and facilitating the assignment of tasks and routes (infrastructure, range, charging time, payload etc.).
• Demonstration of fast charging concepts capable of fitting established regulations and business practices, particularly at load/unload points enabling efficient operations.
• Optimizing the specific charging infrastructures for logistics hubs and/or TEN-T urban nodes.
• Contribute to significant price reduction steps by demonstrating a net total cost of operation (TCO) parity with 2020 engine-based solutions and assuming a production volume of >= 10.000 pieces/year and net TCO reductions beyond that volume.
• Contribution to increasing economies of scale, following demonstration of powertrain integration in different applications and the realisation of the necessary value chains.

The action will focus on validation of full electric N2 and/or N3-category vehicle(s), specific regional, suburban and urban freight transport applications seamlessly integrated into fleets.

Proposals are expected to address all the following:

• Validation of zero emissions vehicle(s) in the above mentioned categories demonstrating the capabilities of the proposed architecture in terms of range, payload, charging requirements, access to connected data etc.
• Demonstration of high efficiency powertrains capable of at least 300 km range between recharging events, whilst operating with at their maximum allowed GVW.
• Demonstrate at least 200 km average daily operation in real conditions over a period of at least 6 months, according to different mission profiles and requirements (distribution and delivery of refrigerated payloads optionally included) including end users from across Europe.
• Achievement of total 10% improvement in overall efficiency over current generation electric vehicles of the same categories.
• Demonstration of a delivery load capacity not less than 90% of a current ICE vehicle.
• Define and develop charging infrastructure solution(s) and associated strategies (private, public or public-private) for the different use cases associated to logistics hubs and TEN-T urban nodes, also proposing an analysis of the minimum viable European recharging stations network, possibly also in coordination with projects issuing from 2Zero topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01-03.
• Development of specific powertrain components might be included where needed, considering synergies with HORIZON-CL5-2021-D5-01-02 where appropriate.
• Assess the capabilities under real operational conditions/use cases and propose strategies to overcome payload and range limitations (e.g. charging strategies while loading/unloading), exploiting all potential operational benefits (e.g. low maintenance and operational cost) as well as innovation enabled by big data acquisition, analysis, and usage to broaden the missions in terms of payload and daily running within the regional scope, and maximizing vehicle productivity (ton km per year) thus demonstrating value for fleet operators and end users.
• Assess the potential impact in terms of emissions reduction considering the potential scale-up opportunities of the addressed use cases, prioritizing higher impact use cases.
• Synergies with shorter range/lower payloads urban and suburban applications in the municipal waste collection or construction activities, can be included.
• Projects should deliver digital twin models of the demonstrator vehicles, such that the impact of the innovations towards the overall objectives of the 2Zero partnership might be determined prior to the completion of the project. Data that is produced as output from a ‘digital twin’ should be FAIR, and deposition in relevant repositories should be encouraged^[1].
• Develop and validate tools for zero tailpipe emission vehicles integration in fleets (and mixed fleets) for efficient assignment of tasks (routes, charging strategies, assignments etc.).

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Towards zero emission road transport’ (2ZERO).

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

Co-programmed European Partnerships
EOSC and FAIR data

[1]Final Report and Action Plan from the European Commission Expert Group on FAIR Data, “TURNING FAIR INTO REALITY” - https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/turning_fair_into_reality_0