IA-HEV drives hybrid and electric vehicles into the future

Martijn is the secretary to the IA-HEV, or Implementing Agreement for Co-operation on Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Technologies and Programmes, which is a collaborative group under the umbrella of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The IEA is an international intergovernmental organisation focused on energy security, environmental protection and climate change.

Better together ...
IA-HEV is one of around 40 IEA member groups, or ‘implementing agreements’, each of which conducts research into different energy topics. IA-HEV, which was established in 1994, aims to foster international collaboration in pursuit of an energy-efficient, low-carbon future, particularly through the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles. It researches and evaluates the vehicles, enabling governments to develop more effective policies and make more informed decisions.

IA-HEV currently has 11 member countries: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA.

“Each of the 11 countries in our group elects representatives, these can be directly from government bodies like ministries, or government-appointed representatives, like energy agencies, small policy makers, and research institutes,“ Martijn explains.

... and cheaper
“The representatives collaborate on research around hybrid and electric vehicles, and related subjects. If one member country decides it would like to research a new battery technology, for instance, it looks to partner with another member interested in the same topic, and they then fund and undertake the project together.

“So a group of, say, five countries, would pay 20 per cent of the funding costs for a particular study, but would each receive 100 per cent of the findings, benefiting from the added value of international knowledge and collaboration,” says Martijn.

Lots to do
Subjects currently being researched by IA-HEV include electrochemical systems, in which all 11 member countries are participating, and electric bicycles. The full list of projects, which IA-HEV calls ‘annexes’, are listed on its website and can vary widely in objective and outcome.

“The work undertaken could be research, or could be evaluating existing material, and discussing standards. It’s very varied,” says Martijn. “Right now, the group which is concerned with the electric bicycles – a group of around three or four countries – is focusing on the deployment of these vehicles, what standards they would need to meet, and so on. The electrochemical research, which involves all 11 countries, is more concerned with feasibility and practical application,” he explains.

Other annexes include Annex XIV: Market Deployment of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles: Lessons Learned, which examines the progress of electric vehicles through the last 20 years. It questions why many electric vehicle start-ups were successful in producing technically reliable ‘pioneer’ models but failed to deliver to the mass market, and how lessons learned from past deployments can be applied in the future. Annex XII: Heavy-Duty Hybrid Vehicles investigates available and emerging hybrid technologies for trucks, buses and dedicated heavy-duty vehicles, and reports on market trends.

Long live the battery
“In the coming years one of the main technological challenges we’re anticipating concerns batteries. For battery technology to be commercially viable we need to see increased storage capacities, and to extended battery life and make battery power a realistic alternative for long-distance travel,” says Martijn.

“At the same time, the price for batteries needs to come down. We hope our research into this field will help these developments happen.”

Increasingly influencial
Martijn says that the role of IA-HEV has evolved significantly since its inception, but looking to the future – a future in which electric vehicles seem to be assuming an increasingly central role right across Europe, at least - the organisation’s influence, and indeed its profile, look set to grow even further.
“Fifteen years ago, the main focus of IA-HEV was on emerging vehicle technology. These days it also includes deployment strategies, the barriers, and how governmental measures stimulate the market.

“IA-HEV is mostly a supportive programme; it is constantly feeding into governmental policy, and decision makers’ knowledge and progress in the field. It’s very much about knowledge sharing and the exchange of ideas, and we have produced some extensive and highly useful reports on hybrid and electric vehicles and their associated technologies,” he says.

Electricity to power
“We’ve never been so busy – we’re in a real growth phase. New countries are joining us all the time, spurred on by rising fuel prices. We hope to continue to grow – and anticipate transportation and energy issues to feed into the group for at least the next decade. Moving forward, we will be increasingly focusing on plug-in hybrids and working hard towards the widespread introduction of electricity into the transport sector.”