Connecting Europe Facility

The City of Bratislava is a partner in the international project entitled URBAN-E: e-mobility, infrastructure and innovative intermodal services in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Bratislava, focusing on support for the expansion of electric charging stations’ infrastructure in Europe. At the end of June 2017, the project was approved by the European Commission to be supported by the EU as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (TEN-T), with the execution period being 03/2017 - 06/2022.

Goals of the project: The URBAN-E project focuses on:

• development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in the cities of the project partners (Bratislava, Ljubljana, and Zagreb),
• assessment of possibilities of introducing innovative models of electric vehicle-driven sustainable transportation (in particular, e-car-sharing, e-taxi, and e-shuttle),
• testing smart solutions in green city mobility and parking (sensors in locations reserved for e-car chargers, smart-charging booking, evaluation of intermodal transportation solutions).

As part of the project, the cities of Bratislava, Ljubljana, and Zagreb will construct a total of 167 charging stations for electric vehicles, of which 144 will use AC (charging time of several hours) and 23 quick-charge stations will use DC (charging time of approximately 20 minutes). In the City of Bratislava alone, there will be 50 AC charging stations (charging time of several hours) and 5 DC quick-charge stations (charging time of approximately 20 minutes); all to be constructed by the Západoslovenská energetika company.

The charging stations will comply with all the charging standards (CCS, CHAdeMO, type 2) and will be interoperable within the Slovak and European networks of charging stations.

Project partners: Leading partner – coordinator of project consortium: Petrol, Ljubljana, Slovenia (energy company)

Partners: Západoslovenská energetika, a.s., Slovakia (national administrator of the project) GO4, s.r.o., Slovakia (operator of logistics, courier and bike courier services) GoOpti, Slovenia (operator of transport services based on electric vehicles) The City of Ljubljana, Slovenia Petrol, Zagreb, Croatia The City of Bratislava, Capital of the Slovak Republic Slovenian Railways, Slovenia The City of Zagreb, Croatia

Period of project execution: 3/2017 - 6/2022

Anticipated project benefits: The URBAN-E project represents an opportunity for the active involvement of the City of Bratislava in the decision-making processes of constructing the electric vehicle charging station network within its territory. At the same time, it affords the city a unique opportunity to participate in assessing the possibility of introducing new business models and solutions in sustainable mobility (e.g., e-car sharing and e-taxi).

As part of the project, there will be a platform for key players introducing a variety of measures of sustainable transportation focused on electromobility, with their goal also being facilitating the construction of a charging infrastructure in the city and introducing other measures to support sustainable transportation.

In addition, the city will acquire new information from testing the smart management (guiding) of e-cars to vacant parking slots using smart sensors, to evaluation of options for introducing innovative intermodal transportation solutions.

By changing the project budget and extending the activity implementation period up to June 2022, the city received an additional grant of € 59,500 (85% using authorised expenses of the activities – CEF funding) to develop a multimodal transportation app. The activity’s goal is to establish an open platform for residents and visitors to the capital, combining public transportation, shared micromobility, shared electromobility, and sustainable taxi services. The app will offer all these in a few clicks – from planning to booking and riding. At the same time, it will indicate the availability and location of the charging stations.

Project involvement and tasks of the City of Bratislava:

• Establishing a platform of key players for the introduction of sustainable transportation with the focus on electromobility (participation of representatives of city districts), system facilitation of the development of electromobility/charging infrastructure, and strategic support for the introduction of new innovative tools of city mobility (such as evaluation of the e-car sharing model).
• Participation in evaluation of possibilities of introducing electric taxis and a car-sharing system based on electric vehicles.
• Participation in planning a network of charging stations for e-cars and the provision of selected parking slots for e-cars in the vicinity of the charging station (as part of the land-use authority of the city).
• Participation in evaluation of possibilities and building an integrated system of varied types of passenger transportation in the city (development of intermodal solutions).
• Participation in dissemination and communication of the project results and communication on the possibilities of sustainable transportation in the city.
• Involvement of the City of Bratislava will make it possible for specialised City Hall employees to participate in the execution of the project activities, to attend specialised workshops and work meetings, and to acquire new information, know-how and specialised skills needed for drawing up strategic documents, the establishment of procedures and methodologies in electromobility in the city.

The project preparation costs were covered in full by private project partners. Most of the costs of the Slovak part of the consortium are made up of investments related to constructing the charging infrastructure. The electric charging station in Bratislava will be built by Západoslovenská energetika, a.s., the national administrator of the project.

The project budget of the city also comprises authorised expenses for studies, project dissemination, increasing awareness on e-mobility, and project management. Based on the type of activities performed by the city (soft activities of the project), the budget also includes financing the project management and human resources, excluding investments into infrastructure.