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Exploring Sustainable Road Transport: Highlights from EUPAVE’s EU Debate on Innovative Infrastructure for Climate-Neutral Mobility

13/12/2023

On Tuesday 5 December 2023, EUPAVE hosted its EU Debate on the theme “Deployment of innovative infrastructure for climate-neutral mobility”. The event took place at EUPAVE’s new office in the Hubb, where also EMBUILD, the former Belgian Construction Confederation is located.

Stéphane Nicoud, President of EUPAVE, opened the event and introduced EUPAVE. He then introduced the main topic of the event: dynamic charging and Electric Road Systems (ERS). Mr. Nicoud concluded his opening speech by shedding light on the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR).

The objective of the proposed Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is to guarantee that there are adequate facilities and services available for vehicles and ships to use alternative fuels, such as electric charging stations or refueling stations for vehicles using non-traditional fuels.

Source

EUPAVE believes that combining dynamic charging with concrete pavements will lead to the development of highly sustainable and resilient solutions for road transport, particularly tailored for commercial vehicles.

The first speaker of the evening was Mr. Mauricio Esguerra, co-founder and CEO of MAGMENT. Despite weather conditions preventing his physical presence, Mr. Esguerra gave a virtual presentation on “Scaling wireless charging infrastructure with magnetizable building materials”.

You can find his presentation here.

Continuing the discourse on innovative infrastructure, Mr. Toon Wassenberg, Mobility Advisor, sustainability and public affairs from SIEMENS, presented the potential of dynamic charging of HDVs on motorways.

You can find his presentation here.

Following the presentations, a debate unfolded about the challenge of providing sufficient charging infrastructure in Europe. The synergy of ERS and stationary charging infrastructure was highlighted as well as the need for more pilot projects and the EU funding that is required to do so.

EUPAVE members remarked that the preferred pavement choice goes to long-life maintenance free structures, precisely what is offered with concrete pavements.

All participants joined a cocktail reception allowing further networking.

EUPAVE is dedicated to leading progress in road transport for a climate-friendly future.