In Germany, mobility is currently in a state of flux. Since June 2019, electric kick scooters (e-scooters) have been permitted on the roads, and this market is booming. This study employs a user survey to generate new data, supplemented by expert interviews to determine whether such e-scooters are a climate-friendly means of transport. The environmental impacts are quantified using a life cycle assessment. This results in a very accurate picture of e-scooters in Germany. The global warming potential of an e-scooter calculated in this study is 165 g CO2-eq./km, mostly due to material and production (that together account for 73% of the impact). By switching to e-scooters where the battery is swapped, the global warming potential can be reduced by 12%. The lowest value of 46 g CO2-eq./km is reached if all possibilities are exploited and the life span of e-scooters is increased to 15 months. Comparing these emissions with those of the replaced modal split, e-scooters are at best 8% above the modal split value of 39 g CO2-eq./km.

Energy efficiency in companies is addressed by established tools or procedures, such as energy audits or the implementation of an energy management system in accordance with the Energy Efficiency Directive. Both options indistinctly provide sufficient information for companies to identify opportunities for improvement and savings in their energy costs. However, the influence of cultural and behavioral aspects on employees and the organizational and structural configuration of companies impacts the effectiveness of these tools. In this regard, within the framework of the INDUCE “Towards a sustainable agro-food Industry: Capacity building programmes in Energy Efficiency” project, which is an H2020 research project focused on the food and beverage industry, an innovative methodology based on the human-centered design approach has been designed to motivate and empower the key actors of companies by creating an energy culture that increases energy efficiency. This methodology, which internalizes the procedures and philosophy of continuous improvement of an energy management system, allows companies to adopt different models adapted to each situation in order to acquire an energy-efficiency culture that enables actions to be carried out in companies more effectively and with long-term impact. This paper describes the methodology and its implementation and validation within 11 pilot companies in France, Germany, Spain, and The Netherlands, providing some representative results.

Rapid advancements in lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology have paved the way for the electrification of diverse applications, with continuous improvements in performance, substantial cost reductions, and the emergence of new manufacturers, formats, and cell chemistries. However, this diversity poses challenges in identifying the most suitable battery cells for specific applications. Here, we present a high-level techno-economic framework for cell selection, leveraging an extensive database of over 500 real-world cells, techno-economic analyses of emerging applications, and a Python-based modeling approach. We apply this method to three electrifiable mobile applications with distinct characteristics: battery electric cars, industrial forklifts, and regional passenger trains. Our results emphasize substantial variations in technical requirements, from power capability to energy density or longevity. We observe no particular differentiation according to cell formats, but tendencies for most suitable chemistries per application. No cell is suitable for all applications, particularly regarding the required maximum cell costs to ensure profitability, ranging from a few to several hundred Euros per kWh to achieve cost parity with a state-of-the-art reference technology. These findings highlight the importance of tailored cell selection strategies for decision makers to optimize performance and cost-effectiveness across different applications.

New energy technologies may fail to make the transition to the market once research funding has ended due to a lack of private engagement to conclude their development. Extending public funding to cover such experimental developments could be one way to improve this transition. However, identifying promising research and development (R&D) proposals for this purpose is a difficult task for the following reasons: Close-to-market implementations regularly require substantial resources while public budgets are limited; the allocation of public funds needs to be fair, open, and documented; the evaluation is complex and subject to public sector regulations for public engagement in R&D funding. This calls for a rigorous evaluation process. This paper proposes an operational three-staged decision support system (DSS) to assist decision-makers in public funding institutions in the ex-ante evaluation of R&D proposals for large-scale close-to-market projects in energy research. The system was developed based on a review of literature and related approaches from practice combined with a series of workshops with practitioners from German public funding institutions. The results confirm that the decision-making process is a complex one that is not limited to simply scoring R&D proposals. Decision-makers also have to deal with various additional issues such as determining the state of technological development, verifying market failures or considering existing funding portfolios. The DSS that is suggested in this paper is unique in the sense that it goes beyond mere multi-criteria aggregation procedures and addresses these issues as well to help guide decision-makers in public institutions through the evaluation process.

Small electric vehicles (SEVs) in commercial transportation have the potential to reduce traffic and its impacts, especially in urban areas. Companies, however, are still reluctant to implement SEVs. Therefore, the aim of this contribution is to shed light on the acceptance of motives for and obstacles to the use of SEVs in commercial transportation. Since the use of SEVs is often discussed in the context of innovative city logistics concepts, such as micro-hubs, our aim is also, to explore the acceptance, economic, and ecological potentials of SEVs in combination with micro-hubs. We use a multi-method approach and combine an online survey with in-depth interviews as well as a total cost of ownership (TCO) and CO₂ calculation. Analyzing 350 responses to an online survey revealed that around half the companies surveyed have no knowledge of SEVs. This implies high unexploited potential, since 25% of these companies can imagine using them. In-depth interviews with logistics service providers (LSPs) or logistics departments from different sectors revealed that six of the 13 interviewed LSPs would be willing to implement this concept.