Connecting Europe to grant 13 million euros to e-mobility project

An e-mobility project between Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Italy will receive 12.9 million euros under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The MULTI-E (Multiple Urban and Long-distance Transport Initiatives – Electric and CNG) project is aimed at electrifying urban and regional bus routes and is worth a total of 64.5 million euros. It is one of 49 projects that the European Commission is proposing for 695.1 million euros in investments in sustainable and innovative transport infrastructure in Europe.

The CEF is a key EU funding instrument developed specifically to direct investment into European transport, energy and digital infrastructures to address identified missing links and bottlenecks. Other projects involve deploying hydrogen-fuelled transportation infrastructure in Denmark, Latvia and the UK.

According to Balkan Green Energy News, Slovenia’s energy company Petrol is the coordinating applicant of MULTI-E. The project is to deploy publicly accessible electric and CNG (compressed natural gas) recharging networks for a variety of urban and corridor travel needs with 16 CNG stations, 24 Ultra Chargers, 349 AC chargers, five charging hubs and six e-bus charging stations, for a total of roughly 1,000 supply points. CNG is a fuel which can be used in place of petrol, diesel fuel and propane/LPG and its combustion produces fewer undesirable gases.

The project focuses on the Baltic-Adriatic corridor, with an extension to Zagreb along the Mediterranean Corridor, and the Rhine-Danube in Slovakia. The European Commission stated that the project is aligned with the core TEN-T priorities, specifically cohesion, decarbonisation, interoperability, and multimodality.

The project is to be completed by December 2023. Croatia has received 424.4 million euros for 32 selected projects, while Slovenia was granted 318.1 million euros for 31 projects.