Heavy-duty vehicles account for about 25% of EU road transport CO2 emissions and about 6% of total EU emissions. In line with the Paris Agreement and Green Deal targets, Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 setting CO2 emission standards for HDVs (from August 14, 2019) forces the transition to a seamless integration of zero-emission vehicles into fleets. In line with the European 2050 goals ESCALATE aims to demonstrate high-efficiency zHDV powertrains (up to 10% increase) for long-haul applications that will provide a range of 800 km without refueling/recharging and cover at least 500 km average daily operation (6+ months) in real conditions. ESCALATE will achieve this by following modularity and scalability approach starting from the β-level of hardware and software innovations and aiming to reach the γ-level in the first sprint and eventually the δ-level at the project end through its 2 sprint-V-cycle. ESCALATE is built on the novel concepts around 3 main innovation areas, which are: i) Standardized well-designed, cost effective modular and scalable multi-powertrain components; ii) Fast Fueling & Grid-friendly charging solutions; and iii) Digital Twin (DT) & AI-based management tools considering capacity, availability, speed, and nature of the charging infrastructures as well as the fleet structures. Throughout the project lifetime, 5 pilots, 5 DTs and 5 case studies on TCO (with the target of 10% reduction), together with their environmental performance via TranSensusLCA will be performed. The ultimate goal is to develop well-designed modular building blocks with a TRL7/8 based on business model innovations used for 3 types of zHDVs {b-HDV,f-HDV,r-HDV}. Furthermore, 3 white papers will be produced, one of which will contribute defining the pathway for reducing well-to-wheel GHG emissions from HDVs based on results and policy assessments.

The project OPEVA aims for innovation on aggregating information from the vehicle, not only from the battery but also from other internal sensors and behaviours, to create a model of performance and consumption specific to the individual vehicle and its driver (TD1). It aims to optimize the individual driving episode using the out-vehicle data such as state of the road, weather, charging station location and occupancy etc. that are collated from the back-end systems (TD2). OPEVA will further address the challenges associated with the communication between the vehicle and the infrastructure to gather data from the back-end systems (TD3). It aims for innovation in the use of recharging stations and related applications (TD4). It further aims to achieve better understanding on what the battery and its constituent cells are really doing during real world use for an improved battery management system (TD5). Finally, TD6 covers the driver-oriented human factors for optimizing the electrical vehicle usage. The TDs from the most deeply embedded in the vehicle to its support in the cloud, which need to interwork in an optimal fashion to deliver in one decade a better level of systemic optimisation for personal mobility that took ten decades to achieve with fossil fuels. On the other hand, economic factors (N-TD1), legal and ethical aspects (N-TD2), EV related development by the human (N-TD3), and societal and environmental factors (N-TD4) will be taken into consideration in the OPEVA methods for a higher acceptance and the awareness of the society regarding the these developments.