The Eurecat technology centre is contributing new technologies to six European consortia with a total budget of over €43 million to drive the transformation of urban mobility and logistics towards more circular, sustainable and digital models with the goal of advancing Europe’s green transition and achieving the climate neutrality target set by the European Union for 2050.
“Transforming urban mobility and logistics is crucial to making progress in the green transition, and Eurecat is spearheading this change by fostering innovation in circularity to reduce environmental impact and promote smart, sustainable systems,” says Irene Jubany, Eurecat’s Scientific Director for Sustainability.
“This array of initiatives places Catalonia and Europe at the forefront of the urban mobility of the future with cleaner, safer and smarter solutions which meet the real needs of cities, businesses and people.”
“The mobility of the future will inevitably be electric, connected and autonomous, and at Eurecat we are working to make this transformation a tangible reality for industry and society,” points out Agustí Chico, Eurecat’s Special Projects Director and BATTECH’s Technology Director. “The European projects we are involved in enable us to bring in technologies which not only cut emissions but also enhance logistics efficiency, transport safety and responsible use of resources.”
“Combining new lightweight, modular electric vehicles, smart logistics systems that connect vehicles with infrastructure or public transport, and solutions for recycling and reusing batteries puts us in a key position to expedite the transition towards more circular and sustainable mobility.”
These projects “step up Eurecat’s role as a strategic technology partner in tackling the major challenges of decarbonisation and digitalising mobility.”
Last mile logistics, green transformation and zero-emission vehicles
One of the flagship initiatives in last-mile logistics is the Shift2Zero project, which has a budget of €12 million and is developing new lightweight, modular electric vehicles with new features tailored to delivery. Furthermore, the €7.5 million GREEN-LOG project is committed to a holistic delivery ecosystem which is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable, drawing on solutions based on the concept of Logistics as a Service, cargo bike networks and autonomous systems integrated with public transport.
As part of this green transformation, the AutoMoTIF project is investing nearly €4 million to explore the use of autonomous vehicles and terminals to improve the flow of goods and reduce emissions through analysing governance frameworks and investigating organisational models.
Eurecat is also supporting the circular design of zero-emission vehicles under the ZEvRA project, which has €11.9 million in funding to implement innovative methodologies designed to minimise environmental impact throughout the entire life cycle and manufacturing process, from material sourcing and manufacturing to end-of-life operations.
Artificial intelligence for battery reuse and traceability
In batteries, Eurecat is taking part in the RECIRCULATE project, which is looking into technology for reusing batteries and tracking them using artificial intelligence and advanced diagnostics. It is also a member of the REVITALISE consortium, which is developing sustainable recycling processes for lithium-ion and sodium batteries. These initiatives have €4.9 million and €3.5 million budgets respectively.
In addition to these projects, Eurecat has also set up a joint research unit with the Catalonia Energy Research Institute (IREC) called BATTECH, which supports technological development, innovation and knowledge transfer in batteries with industry.
