Last week, ASSURED was presented by project partner UITP at the Monte Carlo Sustainable Action Dialogue, the pre-event of the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), which will take place in January 2020 in New Delhi. The event was organised by India-based TERI, in partnership with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
Arno Kerkhof, Bus Unit Team Leader at UITP, attended the workshop, which focussed on electro-mobility and sustainable renewable energy.
During the event, the focus was on India: the country is currently undergoing an electric mobility revolution triggered by government schemes such as FAME for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles. This scheme was launched by the Government of India in March 2015 with the aim of promoting hybrid and electric vehicles. The scheme has a budget of approximately INR 100 billon and covers buses (amongst others) mainly focuses on public transportation vehicles.
During the event, Arno Kerkhof presented the recently released ASSURED 1.0 Interoperability Reference report. In his presentation, he emphasised the importance of having an interoperability conformity testing protocol to assure interoperability of high power opportunity charging electric buses from different brands with their multiple-brand charging infrastructure.
“The outcomes of the ASSURED project will be of great interest to many and we will further debate this major publication and their conclusions at the UITP International Bus Conference this autumn. This conference will absolutely be the best occasion to see what lies ahead for the global bus industry”, said Arno Kerkhof.