Financing innovation in clean and sustainable mobility : study on access to finance for the innovative road transport sector

This study, carried out under the InnovFin Advisory mandate, reviews the access-to-finance conditions for Innovative Transport and puts forth a set of recommendations to address the financial and non-financial challenges faced by the sector. Europe has always enjoyed a strong and highly competitive automotive and transportation industry; and yet today it is mostly non-European companies that are driving the disruption in many segments of Innovative Transport. The study identified critical gaps in the funding of companies developing technologies and services in this area and an uneven distribution of money, concentrated on specific business models and on a few individual companies, most of them outside the EU. The bottleneck of accessing suitable financing opportunities goes hand in hand with lack of standards and common regulations at European level, which are holding back investments even in areas where Europe could enjoy a "natural competitive edge". The study addresses some of these challenges by proposing nine policy and finance-related recommendations in the three areas analysed as part of this work: urban green mobility solutions and services; low carbon highly energy efficient road vehicles; and automated and connected road transport.