Lisbon, along with other European cities including Milan, Palma (Majorca), Vigo and Berlin have, since 2013, been rolling out the eBridge project through the organisation of a series of operational actions and promotional events to show how electric vehicles could take over the urban transport scene as they are cleaner, more efficient, and silent.
On 23 and 24 April all eBridge members will meet in Lisbon to discuss the project and its progress, including its most recent members Austria and the Welsh county of Carmarthenshire.
Information from eBridge explains that the project “is an EU co-funded project that promotes new mobility concepts and services in Europe. It considers electric fleets to be important drivers of change in cities and wider urban areas of the near future. It will encourage car users, mobility service providers, fleet managers and policy makers to change their behaviours and attitudes towards electric vehicle usage.”
A statement from Lisbon Council said “this will, as a consequence, overcome the barriers associated with the cost of acquisition, reliability and the need for charging networks.”
Lisbon’s role, according to eBridge, is to “assess the usage potential of electric vehicles in the municipal fleet and how this example can boost the market penetration of such technology.
“It is aimed at supporting the municipal fleet renewal strategy so that electric vehicles are rationally integrated in the operations and an effective uptake of this new technology is undertaken within the municipality.”
The use of electric vehicles in Lisbon’s current municipal fleet is around fifteen percent higher than that of other partners in the eBridge project.