ExtraEnergy is a key player in an EU-supported pedelec promotion project to be launched in six EU countries soon.
 

 
The project Go Pedelec! (previously known as EVARIM) received the green light from the European Commission (EC) last week.

It was the signal for partners in six EU countries to start rolling out the kind of activities which ExtraEnergy has been implementing for years (mainly) in Germany, to raise the awareness for pedelecs and get more people to ride pedelecs.

The countries and partners in the Go Pedelec! project are:
• The Netherlands (City of Utrecht, promoted by IBC)
• Germany (Stuttgart, promoted by FOVUS, University of Stuttgart and ExtraEnergy)
• Czech Republic (Prague, promoted by ekolo)
• Hungary (City of Miskolc)
• Austria (City of Graz, promoted by energieautark)
• Italy (Cosmoroma, promoted by ANEA).

The aim of the project is to build awareness for electric vehicles among consumers in the languages Dutch, German, English, Czech, Hungarian and Italian. This will be done at events where everyone can test-ride different pedelecs. For that purpose, the well-known TEST IT obstacle course of ExtraEnergy will be "exported" to the other countries. Online- and print media will also play important roles in the pedelec promotion.

For this project, the best-practice activities of ExtraEnergy will be customized to the needs of every country. The retail trade will also have a role in the program. Here Go Pedelec! will tie up with the EU project PRESTO, run by the European Twowheel Retailers' Assocation (ETRA) and the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF).

For the Europe-wide appearance of the TEST IT obstacle course of ExtraEnergy a new, mobile test course will be built this autumn, to tour through Europe from Spring 2010 to Summer 2010.

While the Go Pedelec! project is underway, the test results of the latest e-bike test ( conducted by ExtraEnergy in October) will be published in Spring 2010 in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Hungarian and Czech.

The project partners met in the ExtraEnergy showroom in Stuttgart on 9 and 10 September 2009 for the kick-off meeting. Present were:

Thomas Lewis and Harald Buschbacher (energieautark) – Project coordinator

Norbert Merkel and Gergely Sóos (Miskolc Holding)

Gerhard Ablasser (City of Graz)

Nadijaka Alvez Acunzo (ANEA)

Jakub Ditrich and Pavel Sodomka (ekolo.cz)

Wolfgang Forderer, Patrick Daude and Jacqueline Hermann (City of Stuttgart)

Ton Daggers (IBC, and representing the City of Utrecht)

Vito Paolo Quinto and Antonio Stango (Cosmoroma)

Hannes Neupert, Conny Krieger and Andres Moreno (ExtraEnergy)

Felix Schiffner and Walter Vogt (part-time) (FOVUS/University of Stuttgart)

Excused: Ruud Ditewig from Stuttgart (presentation held by Ton Daggers/IBC).


23 September 2009