Brussels, 27/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - It is surprising that European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas chose Berlin to make his appeal for member states to reach a swift agreement on the technical specificifications on e-mobility because, in its proposals on alternative fuels (January 2013, EUROPE 10771), the Commission decided to go for the German model of electric charging port, as opposed to the French model that is widely available in the country.
Speaking during the “Electric Mobility Going Global” conference organised by the German government in Berlin on Monday 27 May, the commissioner pointed out that the main problem regarding the mass use of electric cars is infrastructure and he insisted that, in the future, this should be “technically compatible everywhere”. He explained that “this is to avoid a situation where a car travelling, say, from France to the Czech Republic across Germany cannot do so simply because the sockets at national charging stations are not compatible or because there is no machine for processing a particular payment card”. Kallas is therefore seeking to be an advocate of a “co-ordinated European approach” to ensure the success of e- mobility. In this connection he warned that, “if different standards exist alongside each other, it discourages potential investors, vehicle manufacturers and consumers”. The German Chancellor, who took part in the conference, also emphasised that “business needs certainty to invest, reliable framework conditions”. The commissioner explained that this was their goal with the proposal for clean fuels. He also stressed that “we need member state support to proceed with this initiative, and sooner rather than later - because our rivals around the world are not sitting still”. (MD/transl.fl)