Looking for a Europe where electric vehicle charging is widespread, efficient and works for users? Look no further.
Powered by the industry, driven by cities, and always having the user in mind, User-Chi (Innovative solutions for user-centric charging infrastructure) has worked to unlock the potential of electromobility in Europe.
User-Chi’s integrated smart solutions, novel business models and new regulatory framework conditions were demonstrated and validated in seven European urban areas: Barcelona Metropolitan Area & Murcia (Spain), Rome & Florence (Italy), Berlin (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), and Turku (Finland). These five sites act as connecting nodes of the key Mediterranean and Scandinavian-Mediterranean Trans-European Transport Network corridors.
Because of their different sizes, contexts and e-mobility maturity level, which offer a diverse sample of the e-mobility landscape in Europe, solutions demonstrated across these cities should lend themselves to scalability and replicability elsewhere.
Local focus
At its core, User-Chi was all about engaging and experimenting within and between cities. Among this project’s activities, for example, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area installed ultrafast charging points in different municipalities and inductive charging infrastructure, allowing charging without handling heavy cables. The city of Rome tested vehicle-to-grid solutions, which could allow cars to exchange energy with the grid and become ‘mobile charging stations,’ while also providing users with advantageous pricing schemes.
E-mobility infrastructure can have a big impact on a city’s use of public space, Budapest therefore set up e-mobility stations combining services related to e-mobility and providing other smart services all at once.
Meanwhile, the city of Turku demonstrated the use of charging boxes for Light Electric Vehicles that combine charging with renewable energy and safe parking for e-bikes.
As the name User-Chi suggests, the user was always at the centre of the project’s decisions. As an example, Berlin will work on developing an online tool to plan their charging infrastructure using existing data, such as user needs and habits, existing charging infrastructure and technologies available on the market.
Tools for your city
CLICK – Charging location and holistic planning kit
Perhaps the most practical and accessible tool tested in User-Chi and made available for other cities is CLICK, the charging location and holistic planning kit. This online platform helps you plan the location of charging stations in your city. You can run and compare scenarios, upload your municipal data for greater accuracy, and export your results.
Discover more about this tool and access it here.
Stations of the Future handbook
The Stations of the Future Handbook is designed to help cities to evaluate different types and configurations of electric vehicle charging stations. The document outlines four main types of future charging stations designed to meet the requirements of electric vehicle users of different types in different situations.
Discover more about this handbook and access it here.
Interoperability framework
If you need to download a new app every time you want to charge your car or bicycle in public, or if only half the chargers serve half the brands of vehicles, your city is suffering from a lack of interoperability. This creates major inefficiencies and makes life difficult for users of environmentally friendly transport.
The ‘INFRA’ interoperability framework is a set of documents that guide planners on achieving interoperability. The documents provide guidelines and recommendations for overcoming barriers in electromobility services, focusing on organisational, legal, technical, and semantic layers, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly charging experience.
Discover more about this framework and access the associated documents here.
Replication Booklet
The booklet provides an overview of challenges, opportunities, and lessons learned around electric charging. Key points include thorough planning, adopting advanced protocols, developing sustainable use cases, and leveraging private infrastructure for public benefits. These insights and tips for replication can guide other cities in implementing effective and scalable electric vehicle charging networks.
Discover more about this booklet and download it here.
Policy brief
User-Chi identified key recommendations for facilitating the massive adoption of electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Europe. These include recommendations for EU, national and local policy makers. For example, EU policymakers should enforce cohesive regulations on vehicle specifications, corporate fleet electrification, emissions, and CO2 standards; national authorities should create consultation frameworks, ensure interoperable cross-border charging networks, and support decentralised infrastructure deployment; while local authorities should integrate accessible, future-proof charging infrastructure into sustainable urban mobility plans and engage stakeholders early.
Discover more about this brief and download it here.
Charged video
To give an intimate picture of the cities engaged in User-Chi, their challenges and ambitions, as well as the stories of the people behind the drive for enhanced electric charging, Eurocities created a series of videos that take you into their world.
Below, you can see the video produced for Barcelona. To view the playlist and choose among all the cities’ videos, click here.
Electric audio
To share insights into Europe’s local electric charging landscape, User-Chi produced the Electromobility Podcast Series, featuring experts and cities’ representatives addressing the main challenges around electromobility from for users.
You can listen to all the episodes via the links in this section. Episode 1 explores the concept of the e-revolution. The guests discuss the broader implications and challenges of transitioning to electric vehicles. Episode 2 shifts focus to the financial aspects of going electric, featuring insights on the costs of owning and using electric vehicles, aiming to help consumers understand the economic considerations of adopting electric mobility.
Episodes 3 and 4 tackle the practicalities of electric vehicle infrastructure. Episode 3 examines the current and future state of electric charging, discussing the ease of charging electric vehicles and the options available. Episode 4 addresses the planning of charging infrastructure, including a discussion of the socio-demographic and technical factors that influence the placement of charging stations.
City stories
To go in-depth into the cities’ activities, discovering the narratives and insights that lie with those working on the project, User-Chi also produced a number of engaging long-form articles where we heard directly from the local administrations. You can read about Barcelona’s initial plans to go electric; Murcia’s aim to unlock the network for e-mobility; Rome’s green mobility makeover; Florence’s mission for more cycling, walking, shared e-mobility; and Berlin’s success in opening private space to public users.
The future for electric mobility
Although User-Chi’s activities have now wrapped up, that doesn’t mean that Eurocities or its members are finished in their quest to make local mobility more environmentally and people-friendly. Scroll down through our mobility topic page to discover our other projects, news and resources in this essential and ever-evolving area.
