“EV Ready, Fresh City” was the slogan of the 2013 International Forum which took place on May 30th and 31st in Shanghai. The forum opened with a plenary session where Mr. Yang Xiong, Mayor of Shanghai, Mrs. Maria van der Hoeven, Excecutive Director of the IEA, and Mr. Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology hold speeches, addressing the challenges of global energy governance in face of the changing worldwide requirements. As one of the following keynote presentations Christian Hochfeld, GIZ Program Director of Sustainable Transport, spoke about the perspectives for Sino-German strategic partnership in the field of Electro-Mobility. Representatives from the Ministry of Science and Technology, SAIC Motor, General Motors, Potevio New Energy Co., and Daimler completed the keynote speech session sharing their expertise and experience.
The afternoon breakout-session dealt with different aspects of Electro-Mobility.
In session 1 “Innovative practices of international EV pilot cities” speakers shared their best practices but also challenges of implementing electric vehicles in their respective pilot cities. Participating cities included Shanghai, San Diego, Shenzhen, Amsterdam, and cities in France and Sweden. Mr. Tali Trigg, IEA Energy Analyst, stressed the importance of international cooperation, because high EV market penetration affects the global economy. Mr. Jacques Saint-Marc, General Manager of the Inter-ministerial Group for Mobility and Electric Vehicles, introduced an innovative application for electric driven vehicles: electrifying garbage trucks allows operating hours at night due to the very low noise emission of the electric vehicles. A positive side effect of shifting the operating time from day to night is the avoidance of congestion. Beforehand, garbage trucks with their big size and low driving speed had disturbed the traffic flow.
Session 2 dealt with “EV Business Model and Consumer Analysis”. Mr. Dominik Borowski, GIZ Project Manager Electro-Mobility and Climate Protection, together with Prof. Fu Gangzhan of Tongji University CAI introduced the Sino-German Cooperation Project on Electro-Mobility and Climate Protection and presented the first results of the “Guidelines for Low Carbon EV-Ready Cities” research study. In that work, Chinese pilot cities have been analyzed based on their preconditions, processes, policies, and performance of implementing EVs. Mr. Justin Woodjack, Institute of Transportation Studies UC Davis, pointed out, that lifestyles can be adaptive to electric vehicles. Especially, mobile applications can be a catalyst for better Lifestyle adaptation while at the same time being a research tool for government to better plan and educate drivers through apps.
Sessions 3 focused on “EV Industrial Development”. Prof. Jay Lee of the University of Cincinnati presented state-of-the-art prognostics and health management and intelligent maintenance systems technologies for EV battery monitoring and SOC/SOH[1] management. He pointed out, that smart batteries together with EV mobility management systems can greatly improve the performance and safety of future EVs. Other presentations dealt with Automotive Industry Standards of Battery Packs, Smart Charging Service Grid, or Challenges and Solutions for the Manufacturing Process.
Day 2 was highlighted by the visit of the EV Zone of Shanghai. First stop was the Automobile Engineering Center of the Tongji University where several testing laboratories for EVs have been shown. The tour continued with visits of the new EV Car Rental project operated by SAIC and e-hi as well as Shanghai’s EV data monitoring center. Highlight of the event was the EV test driving center offering participants the possibility to choose EVs of different automobile brands for a test drive.
