After 3 years of research, eCoMove (Cooperative Mobility Systems and Services for Energy Efficiency) presented its results to the public at its final event in Aachen, Germany on November 20th.

The eCoMove consortium - comprising 32 partners including public authorities, vehicle manufacturers, service providers, infrastructure and telecommunication operators, and research institutes - has developed solutions using next-generation vehicle-to-X communication technologies to reduce inefficiencies responsible for energy waste in road transport.

Jean-Charles Pandazis, eCoMove coordinator and Head of Ecomobility sector at ERTICO, stated: "eCoMove allows vehicles to know about downstream events and take action, for example to change route or adapt speed. Traffic control systems have more possibilities to sense approaching traffic and optimise their strategies based on this information. Infrastructure-to-Vehicle communications offer more flexibility to control traffic".

eCoMove applications for eco-driving, fleet and traffic management show CO₂ reductions ranging from 4-25%. These results vary on the use case (urban vs. rural situations) but also on the applications tested. They were based on field trials, traffic network simulations and driving simulator studies.

Guillaume Vernet, Project Manager ITS at Volvo Group Trucks Technology, said that: "in the commercial vehicle business, fuel consumption represents about a third of a transport company operational costs. By looking at goods distribution tour optimisation, fuel efficient navigation and eco-driving with a cooperative electronic horizon, eCoMove shows that cooperative ITS services have the potential to save fuel."

According to eCoMove findings, the level of CO₂ reduction depends on the traffic situation, the road network and the driver. Drivers receive early corrective advice to slow down ahead of situations where otherwise they would have come to a stop. Ford has been testing a prototype accelerator pedal with haptic feedback that coaches a more fuel-efficient driving style. With this support function, drivers have reduced their fuel consumption by up to 15%.

Overall, results show that a reduction over 10% is feasible in urban networks. The reduction of CO₂ realised by network and routing schemes depends on the traffic load of the network; for instance if the network load is low or moderate, the reduction rate is expected to be rather small (around 4%). On the other hand, in heavily loaded networks, the reduction can be up to 12%. The largest impact on CO₂ reduction can be achieved in case of severe incidents, where concerned road users need to be informed as quickly as possible about the incident and possible alternative routes.

"eCoMove has shown that it is possible to reduce CO₂ emissions from road traffic while simultaneously improving travel times in the road network", Klaas Rozema, Chief Technology Officer at Imtech Traffic & Infra Division said. "Imtech believes that cooperative systems are creating new opportunities for sustainable mobility, involving all stakeholders with services for end users as well as network managers, ranging from automated driving support to balancing regional networks".