In urban traffic, due to their beneficial effect on environment,
electrically propelled vehicles are an important factor for improvement
of traffic and more particularly for a better living environment.
For 30 years, ETEC has been involved with alternative drive
vehicles and especially electrically propelled vehicles. The
origins of this research are in the ETEC activities on power
electronics , a key element of the electric drive train.
In 1979, a revolutionary automatic rent-a car system called " Brussels
Electric Vehicle Experiment " was developed. In addition
to the electric vehicles , two rental stations were
built on the VUB-campuses Etterbeek and Jette. The vehicles were
used by VUB-personnel and were a common sight on the campus until
the early 1990s.
Research was also performed on the charging of batteries and
the necessary infrastructures.
Following technological evolutions in the field, ETEC's interest
has been expanded from battery-electric vehicles to electrically
propelled vehicles in general including hybrid and fuel cell
vehicles.
The activities of ETEC in the field are internationally oriented;
the establishment of international associations such as AVERE and CITELEC allows
to reinforce the synergies between different actors.
Electrically propelled vehicles of course get the necessary
attention in the ETEC education: for example, the students of
the second bachelor year get an introduction to electrotechnics
through a work college "Building
an electric kart".