iMOVE : innovation for electric mobility in Flanders (Living Labs EV)

The iMOVE platform aims at realizing a break-through in the adoption of electric vehicles by society, by solving urgent energy market related, technical and societal barriers . The iMOVE platform enables and stimulates innovation through analyses, tests, further research in controlled real-life circumstances on large scale. The results will allow the industrial partners to realize a substantial commercial scaling-up at Flemish, national and/or international level.
The platform focuses on the 3 main themes, namely Energy, Technology and Behavior, investigating:
-the interaction between EVs and smart grids
-the aging of batteries with a view to optimal usage in a second life
-vehicle consumption and range correlated with geographical, climate and driving conditions
-driving behaviour and user acceptance correlated to the use and limitations of EVs
-the development of business models to offer mobility contracts
-billing of energy consumption independent to suppliers
-interoperability of charging infrastructure

To reach this goal the iMOVE platform consists of an extensive infrastructure and a test population broadly spread across Flanders, under the ownership of and management by a complementary and multidisciplinary consortium of industrial partners: Umicore, Belgacom, Infrax, Interparking, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Delhaize, SPE-Luminus, Ernst & Young, REstore, Electrawinds, Punch Powertrain, P&V Elektrotechniek, ThePluginCompany, Fleet&DriverCare and Hendriks Groep.

The iMOVE infrastructure is composed of 162 electric passengers cars and utility vans, 180 charge points and a 6 MW solar farm together with IT infrastructure to support the platform regarding data and knowledge management. The scale of the infrastructure is significant (i) as different technologies are deployed, from which statistically relevant data must be obtained, (ii) as real-life EV driver behavior is assessed in different circumstance and (iii) to verify if many Electric Vehicles can be useful as aggregated flexible loads in the energy market.

VUB (researchgroup MOBI)has the task to select the test panel and to assist the consortium with extensive knowledge of electric mobility as a scientific partner.