Only a small percentage of cars use fossil-free fuels. Prices of fossil-free cars are high, infrastructures are not fully developed. Systems are not prepared for large-scale use. „In response to the Paris Treaty for climate protection to further reduce emissions in the EU, the Federal Assembly of Germany in its communication of October 2016 recommended to ban all new registrations of gasoline cars by 2030.“ Efforts need to focus on implementing renewable fuel systems. Systems in neighboring countries need to be harmonized to facilitate cross-border travel. A number of questions remain:
Which fuels and technologies to focus on?
- How to structure charging or fuelling infrastructure in order to ensure cost effectiveness and free mobility?
- How to inform citizens about opportunities and challenges?
- How to build knowledge about the transformation challenge, necessary speed and financing needs.
Companies and public organizations need to grasp the consequences of the decision. Neighbouring countries can take advantage of Germany’s initiative, learn, and speed up the expansion of their fossil-free vehicle fleets.
Charging and fuelling infrastructure will need to be expanded in order to accommodate large numbers of vehicles and different services need to be launched to facilitate transformation A lot of work remains. Fossil-free transportation has to become visible, attractive and competitive to ordinary car users. Projects with a goal of implementing new systems on a large scale will have to be initiated. This seed money application aims at building such a project. Seed funding is needed in order to build awareness among a number of organizations in the South Baltic Region of the magnitude of the challenge and the need to organize large-scale activities.
