About the project

Electrification of transport is a major way to reduce the carbon footprint of the transport sector. However, it requires more than simply switching from fossil fuel-powered cars to e-cars to transition to sustainable mobility and reduce congestion. Public transport is crucial and forms a major part of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans.

ELIPTIC (electrification of public transport in cities) developed a series of new concepts and business cases related to the optimisation of existing electric public transport (PT) infrastructure and rolling stock.

With these, it set out to show that current electric PT infrastructure – such as metros, trams, light rail, and trolleybuses - could support the next wave of transport electrification for both public and private users.

ELIPTIC had 20 use cases in 11 European cities, which delivered insights about technical, legal and fiscal frameworks to achieve the uptake of electric vehicles in a cost-efficient way.

The use cases covered three main thematic areas:

1. Safe integration of e-buses into existing electric public transport infrastructure;
2. Utilising energy storage systems to use recuperated energy, for example from trolley or trams braking; and
3. The multi-purpose use of electric PT infrastructure, such as for (re)charging of commercial vehicles, private vehicles and taxis.

ELIPTIC also foresaw that reaching full electrification requires the integration of public electricity grids and those used by public transport operators. Various guidelines and tools are available that advise on upgrading and regenerating electric public transport systems.

Find out more on the lessons learned in ELIPTIC on p.19 - p.21 of the publication CIVITAS Research Projects Lessons Learned 2015-2018.