Co-funded by the EU under the H2020 Research and Innovation Programme, eCharge4Drivers works to improve the electric-vehicle charging experience in urban areas and on interurban corridors, making it more convenient for users to go green. The project will demonstrate additional convenient charging options within cities, a mobile charging service, charge points at lamp posts, networks of battery swapping stations for light electric vehicles and a transportable charging station service to cover temporary needs.

More specifically, eCharge4Drivers will improve the electric vehicle charging experience by:

• Developing and demonstrating user-friendly charging stations and innovative charging solutions with: scalable stations that support both low and high-power charging (20-150 kW) for passenger vehicles and motorcycles, and high-power charging (> 150 kW) for passenger electric vehicles; low-power direct current charging stations (15-45 kW, supporting bi-directional energy flow up to 11 kW) for passenger vehicles and motorcycles; standardised direct current charging stations for L1e vehicles (1.5 kW); mobile charging services, charging points on lamp posts and standardised battery swapping stations for L1e vehicles.

• Providing users with smart services, such as: enhanced information to users, before, during and after charging; low-power direct current charging stations (15-45 kW, supporting bi-directional energy flow up to 11 kW) for passenger vehicles and motorcycles.

• Fostering the broad implementation of charging infrastructure in Europe by: providing market models and proposed guidelines for investors and authorities, as well as recommendations for legal and regulatory harmonisation; deploying charging infrastructure and other charging services in a sustainable and user-centric way.

The eCharge4Drivers consortium brings together32 partners across 12 European countries. Politecnico di Milano participates in the project as a member of the Interuniversity Consortium for Optimization and Operation Research (ICOOR) with the involvement of Prof. Federico Malucelli and Prof. Ola Jabali of the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria.

DEIB’s role is mainly in 1) the development of an enhanced route planner for electric vehicles; 2) designing an optimisation tool for the location of charging stations; 3) supporting the application of the project tools in the demonstration sites and; 4) in the impact assessment of project.