Electric mobility and ITS

Identifying the untapped potential of completing key aspects of the Single European Transport Area (SETA) and of extending it to candidate countries Transport is a central pillar of European integration and a key pre-condition for the European Single Market. Access to seamless and efficient transport services and infrastructure across Europe is key to the functioning of the EU common market, affecting the free movement of people, goods, and services. The objective of the study is to provide a systematic analysis of the existing regulatory and non-regulatory barriers – as well as missing elements – that hamper the creation of the SETA and the completion of the Internal Market for the transport of goods and passengers and understand the economic impact of such barriers and missing elements. The study will use carefully selected case studies, to illustrate, with a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis: TRT is the project coordinator of a 4-partner (Ricardo, M-FIVE, and TEPR) consortium, responsible for all activities of the studies, and main contact with DG MOVE

ISAC Intelligent Access (as a part of the digital transformation of road freight transport) Intelligent Access (IA) is an evolving and relatively new concept of ensuring “the right vehicle with the right cargo/freight, operates on the right road at the right time“. This approach promises significant benefits, including improved oversight for authorities, streamlined permitting processes for operators, and enhanced predictability in routing. It also supports broader policy objectives such as reducing congestion, minimizing environmental impacts, and safeguarding infrastructure integrity. The ISAC project proposes a functional architecture for IA implementation across Europe that operationalizes IA policy principles through five interconnected building blocks shaping the system architecture. Together, these building blocks form a scalable, interoperable framework designed to support phased implementation across countries, aligning with varying levels of digital maturity while ensuring harmonization at European level. The overarching objective of ISAC is to deliver general guiding principles, showing the dependencies, pre-conditions, and necessary steps to move implementation and adoption of IA forward across borders and at national level for the transport of goods by road. Within ISAC TRT led WP2 on the development of IA system architecture and roadmaps for the implementation of IA schemes in Europe.

Pre-feasibility study for the establishment of a Vertiport in the Municipality of Piacenza The pre-feasibility study for the establishment of a vertiport in Piacenza is pioneering in the context of Urban Air Mobility themes and has been structured around three main lines of activity: market analysis, demand analysis (potential), and location hypotheses. The market analysis and its prospects involved an in-depth examination of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, their temporal outlook, and the technological barriers associated with such technologies. An overview of the global and national market was provided, and insights were developed regarding the ground infrastructure enabling these new services – Vertiports – as well as potential services, taking into account industry regulations. Furthermore, a detailed analysis was conducted on both global and Italian cases of experimental vertiport implementations, examining the regulatory framework in the sector. The analysis of potential demand was conducted using big data, derived from mobile network cells, and focused on exchange flows with possible attractor centres within a radius of approximately 150 km from Piacenza. These attractor centres included the city of Milan and the airports of Milan (Maplensa and Linate), Bergamo, Bologna and Turin. The potential locations for the vertiport within the territory of the Municipality of Piacenza were examined, taking into account the necessary infrastructure elements and European guidelines provided by EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency). The selection criteria favoured pre-existing, accessible areas. Finally, the estimate of the minimum required square footage and associated costs have been prepared.

Mapping study on digital and technical solutions to enable more effective and user-friendly UVARs, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity The broad objective of the study is to support the operation of more efficient, user-friendly and non-discriminatory UVARs across the European Union for both vehicle users, operators and city authorities. For vehicle users (private and commercial) the specific objective is to improve the ease and efficiency of UVAR pre-registration procedures while, for authorities, to ease the conformity checks of vehicles. This study will seek to achieve the abovementioned objectives by identifying and mapping EU interoperable technical and digital solutions (or combinations thereof), as well as respective realistic and feasible implementation options, that facilitate seamless travel across the EU. This further “mapping study” builds on UVAR Exchange results and is structured in 4 Tasks. Task 1 starts with the identification, mapping, analysis and further clarification of interoperable digital and technical solutions or their combinations thereof, including an analysis of what it takes to implement them on the ground. Task 2 will provide an overview of the identified technology combinations with its specific pros and cons, constraints and challenges, including the notions of user-friendliness and non-discriminatory aspects. It will investigate and suggest EU-wide interoperability standards needed for UVAR compliance and enforcement technologies and digital solutions Task 3 will build from the previous and draft a roadmap of actions. Task 4 is a transversal task that will concentrate all stakeholder engagement and consultation activities   TRT leads Task 3 activities and is responsible for investigating digital tachograph and camera-based solutions including data exchange and enforcement practices and IT systems in use in Italy. Besides TRT, the awarded consortium is composed of Panteia (NL), MAPtm (NL) and Austriatech (AT). The study follows the previous European Parliament Preparatory Action, contracted by DG MOVE, for an “User-friendly information tool on urban and regional vehicle access regulation schemes” that generated the projects UVAR Box and UVAR Exchange (https://uvarbox.eu/) with TRT as partner of the two consortia.  

Design and assessment of the National E-Mobility Strategy in Jordan Electrification is one of the main options towards decarbonizing the transport sector. The Jordanian transport sector, currently reliant on fossil fuels, accounts for nearly 40% of the energy consumption in the country in 2020. Transport decarbonisation has to be addressed to achieve Jordan’s ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) goals. From electricity-sector perspective, uncontrolled electric vehicle (EV) uptake may bring challenges such as increase in peak load and distribution grid congestion, but also present financial and technical opportunities due to new revenue streams. Seeing the potential and benefits of E-Mobility uptake, the Government of Jordan has included Designing a National E-Mobility Strategy as part of its Reform Matrix, under Pillar 9 Energy. To this end, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) has been leading the effort in coordination with key stakeholders and implementing partners. The World Bank (WB), through the Jordan Growth Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), supports MEMR and GoJ in its mandate with required Technical Assistance (TA) activities. This project will inform the WB’s policy dialogues in Jordan related to scaling up E-Mobility, in the context of the GoJ’s effort to design, launch, and implement a National E-Mobility Strategy. This study will have a particular focus on energy-sector issues (notably charging infrastructure and charging tariff), but also build upon past efforts, consolidate previous findings, systematically assess the key issues at stake, and provide valid and actionable options in order to support GoJ’s formulation of a comprehensive National E-Mobility Strategy. TRT, supported by MRC (Spain), is leading the project and is responsible for the design and assessment of the strategy. As part of its activities TRT has developed the Jordan vehicle fleet model to forecast the uptake of electric mobility.