On 23 February the region Stuttgart will take stock of progress made with its e-mobility project. The main goal of the project is to have 100,000 e-vehicles on the roads of the greater Stuttgart region by 2020. Everyone is welcome to come and listen to the presentations and take part in the discussions.
 

 
The event will be hosted by the Bündnis 90/Green Party and will kick off at 18:00 on the ground floor of the building at 4 Theodor-Heuss-Straße in the Stuttgart city center.

In June last year the greater Stuttgart region (with 40 communities in partnership) was singled out as one of eight "model regions for e-mobility" in Germany to get financial help from the federal government to implement their plans for electric transport. The other regions were Berlin/Potsdam, Bremen/Oldenburg, Hamburg, Munich, Rhein-Main, Rhein-Ruhr (with the focus on Aachen and Münster), and Saxony (with the focus on Dresden and Leipzig).

Together, the 8 regions will receive €115 million between June 2009 and 2011 for their projects. The money comes from the government's so-called "Konjukturpaket II" (an attempt to neutralize the negative effects of the global economic downturn on the German economy).

The federal government hopes car, public transport, heavy-vehicle transport and bicycles with alternative motors will be linked together in the 8 regions. And that user-friendly and secure re-charging infrastructure will be installed.

The federal government set as a goal for Germany to have 1 million e-vehicles on the country's roads by 2020. In response, Stuttgart region set as its own goal to have a "market share of the one million" of at least 10% by 2020. That means, Stuttgart region wants to go from practically zero to 100,000 e-vehicles in 10 years.

On 23 February the questions will be posed: How realistic is this goal? How will the infrastructure have to change to accommodate 100,000 e-vehicles? What progress has the region made towards this goal since June last year? Who are doing what in the region towards that goal?

Tomi Engel of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie e.V., will deliver the introductory speech. Günter Stürmer, spokesman of the 30 communities in the e-mobile region Stuttgart, will present an overview of the projects underway and planned for the region. The discussion will be moderated by local council member Michael Kienzle. There is no need to register beforehand - interested people may simply pitch up on the night.

Copy: Christoffel Volschenk
9 February 2010