Leuven.Inc Visionary seminar: Are combustion cars here to stay?

Or is the e-car coming to you soon?

Organised by Leuven.Inc in cooperation with imec.

Electric (and hybrid) vehicles are in fact a century-old technology, which became popular again the last decade. Nowadays, almost every major car manufacturer offers, or at least announced, some form of electricity-driven “eco-car”. Nevertheless there are many different types and approaches to make an e-car yielding revolutionary means of transport or perhaps just an incremental adaptation to the good old combustion engine car. Therefore we start with an overview of what is possible and what can be expected on the market soon(er or later).

With all the fuss created around e-cars, one might think noisy combustion engines will be disappearing from the streets pretty soon, but they are here to stay, at least for the next decades. During this seminar we will explain that this classic technology is also moving on and is not dead yet: it will have a new life, perhaps in hybrids or special applications.

With the car industry apparently moving out of our regions step by step during the last decade, one can wonder whether we can benefit from this evolution, or will we just buy imported cars? We discuss how our region plays a key role in the value chain of a core component, the battery.

Although the e-car is in practice just slowly coming into the market, one may wonder whether this can be accelerated and whether we will solve the charging problem on time: being able to plug-in at the right moment, in the right place (hopefully near you) and for the right electricity price will not be obvious and even the business model behind the charging game can go in different directions. To test this out in the field, different living labs are launched in Flanders.

Practical aspects

Date: Thursday May 31st, 2012
Location: imec, room -1A, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Leuven (Heverlee)

!! Parking at the overflow parking is strongly advised due to newly issued security rules.
When using GPS, indicate Gaston Geenslaan, 3001 Leuven (right of Bio-Incubator).

Programme

16h30:	Welcome coffee
17h00:	Welcome by Leuven.Inc
17h10:	Introduction Johan Driesen, Prof. ESAT – ELECTA KU Leuven and EnergyVille
17h25:	E-car: opportunities and challenges Joeri Van Mierlo, head of Mobi: Mobility, Logistics and Automotive technology research
17h45:	Internal Combustion Engines on the Move in the 21st Century Eric Van den Bulck, Prof. Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion KU Leuven
18h10:	Coffee break
18h40:	Towards the Deployment of Fuel Cell and Hydrogen technologies Bert De Colvenaer, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking
19h05:	Materials challenges for batteries in xEV Jean Scoyer, Chief Scientist, Umicore Research & Development
19h30:	Flemish Living Lab Electric Vehicles : Bringing the e-car to you Carlo Mol, Programme Manager
19h50:	Panel discussion and Q&A
20h10:	Drinks and snacks

The interventions will be held in English

Participation fee

135 euro (excl. VAT): members of Leuven.Inc - 175 euro (excl. VAT): all others Special fee available for Master and PhD students affiliated to and billable by KU Leuven or other universities. Please do contact us by e-mail.
	Participation in our activities at -50% discount via KMO-portefeuille Pijler OPLEIDING: Leuven.Inc Approval number DV.O106761 More info: www.kmo-portefeuille.be

Registration

Registrations before Thursday May 24th, 2012, preferably via the online registration form (use the 'Register' button) or by email to admin@leuveninc.com (including all contact and invoice details).

After registration you will receive a confirmation and route description. The registration fee is payable after receipt of invoice. Cancellation after subscription is not possible. However, replacement by a colleague is allowed.*