What is the ECOCHAMPS project?

ECOCHAMPS means European COmpetitiveness in Commercial Hybrid and AutoMotive Powertrain Sproject, which now is working to develop new technologies exclusively for hybrid electric passenger and commercial vehicles that provide improved performance and comfort, lead to fewer CO2 emissions and reduce the price of hybrid vehicles.

The project consortium includes vehicle manufacturers such as DAF, DAIMLER, FIAT/CRF, IVECO, MAN and RENAULT; major automotive suppliers, as well as research organizations and universities.

Standardization of components is one way to bring vehicle costs down. However, for commercial hybrid vehicles (buses, medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks) no such standards yet exist. Through a broad cooperation of manufacturers of commercial vehicles, for that and more, ECOCHAMPS will propose a Modular system and Standardisation Framework (MSF).

A second way to reduce cost is modularisation which enables the use of the same hybrid electric components over different vehicle types ranging from light-duty (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) to heavy-duty vehicles (vans, city buses and trucks).