Shifting to 800-volt systems: Why boosting motor power could be the key to better electric cars

The latest results from research on 800-volt battery-driven vehicles show that this could lead to smaller, lighter, and more environmentally friendly motors. Cars using these powertrains could also be charged faster and travel further on a single charge

The latest results from research on 800-volt battery-driven vehicles show that this could lead to smaller, lighter, and more environmentally friendly motors. Cars using these powertrains could also be charged faster and travel further on a single charge

Sales of electric vehicles are slowly beginning to gain traction in Europe as mainstream brands including Volkswagen, BMW, Fiat, Opel and Hyundai start to roll out battery-powered models.

But, despite a push by many governments to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars in the next two decades in favour of full-electric vehicles, the existing technology in battery vehicles restricts their ranges and makes them more time-consuming to refuel than their combustion-engine rivals. This and their higher price continue to hamper their chances of becoming mainstream any time soon.

For many industry observers though, developments to boost the electrical systems of battery-driven vehicles to 800-volts from the current industry standard of 400 volts could be the breakthrough that finally allows electric vehicles to move to the next level and better compete, and eventually replace, combustion vehicles. A necessary transition as Europe strives to lower vehicle emissions and tackle climate change.

Professor Peter Wells, of Cardiff University’s Centre for Automotive Industry Research, says: “As is usually the case with ‘premium’ technology options in the automotive industry, we can expect a rapid transfer to the mass market arising from competitive pressures. In some cases, manufacturers have designed-in the ability to migrate from 400 volt to 800 volts as costs fall and as competitiveness comes to require such systems.”

Among those companies who have already embraced this technology is Volkswagen Group’s sports car brand Porsche, who have fitted an 800-volt system in their full-electric Taycan sports car, which was launched last year. For Otmar Bitsche, director of e-mobility in the automaker’s research and development unit, the reasons for opting for the higher-powered unit are clear: “Lower weight, higher efficiency and faster charging” are the major benefits to 800-volt systems, he believes.

Charging time can be greatly reduced when using fast chargers capable of working at up to 270 kilowatts. “If the charger provides 800 volts and a minimum of 300A, the Taycan can charge from 5% to 80% in 22.5 minutes. 400V chargers typically provide 50kW only. The same charging capacity would need 90 minutes,” Bitsche explains. The automaker, which was the first to introduce an 800-volt electrical system commercially, claims a 420-kilometre range between charges for its four-door coupe-styled saloon.

While this is not hugely higher than figures achieved by rivals using 400-volt systems such as the I-Pace from Jaguar, which can cover the 354 kilometres on a single charge, the use of an 800-volt system considerably increases the possibilities to boost the range of their electric vehicles.

One such advantage is that 800-volt electrical systems allow a greater retention of power, which is normally lost through heat generated during the charging process. A higher voltage system allows a lower current to be used when charging the battery, which reduces overheating and allows better power retention in the system. This power can be used towards a longer driving range.

Higher voltage systems also offer a number of key weight- and mass-saving advantages. The reduction of copper is one of these. Electric motors are much simpler than combustion engines in construction and at their core they have a rotor, which turns in response to a rotating magnetic field created by electricity from the battery. To achieve this, electrical systems often use up to four times the amount of copper found in combustion engines. Using higher-voltage systems can lead to the amount of copper used in motors being significantly cut.

Michael Burghardt, senior project manager at AVL, a German company developing and testing powertrain technology for cars and trucks, says: “Higher voltages mean less current and less current means less copper in the car. Less copper means less weight, and this is the goal we are reaching for.”

Burghardt is collaborating with the European Union research project Drivemode, which is seeking to develop a highly efficient and compact modular drivetrain for full-electric cars that uses the vehicle’s stored energy more efficiently through a higher-voltage electric system.

Besides reducing the weight of motors, an 800-volt system has the added advantage of reducing their mass too. Since the higher voltage allows the motors to run at speeds of 20,000 rpm, well over double that of their 400-volt siblings, they have better power density. This means that they convert electrical power to mechanical power with this speed and not high torque. “In general, motor size is defined by torque capability,” Bitsche says, which means removing torque from the equation allows motors to be much smaller. So much, in fact, that smaller high-speed motors can weigh as little as 25 kilograms, with the result that they reduce the overall weight of a vehicle, enabling it to travel much further on a single charge.

Watch the video interview on high-voltage systems in electric vehicles with Michael Burghardt – AVL, Germany

Smaller motors also mean the vehicle has additional space for batteries as Professor Wells notes: “The reduced weight of 800-volt systems will further help with increased range and acceleration performance or allow for larger battery packs with even greater range.”

Reducing the size of the motors along with optimising the efficiency of the drivetrain is central to Drivemode’s goal of producing small adaptable electric modules that consist of power electronics, a gearbox, and the motor itself. Modules that can be scaled up according to the power requirements of a given vehicle.

“The intention of the Drivemode project was to have one motor which can fit in different modular systems having one to four motors in one car,” Burghardt says.

That goal is one of many technical challenges that the project has met and overcome since it was launched. Technology derived from Drivemode is now expected to make its way into production vehicles in the next few years as the auto industry makes the move to the next generation of electric vehicles.

According to Professor Wells, the 800-volt technology will take a couple of model generations to really filter through to becoming the de facto standard, but by 2026 it can be expected to be the dominant application.

By David Jolley

Source: iCube Programme

China’s central bank to issue 10 bln yuan of bills in Hong Kong

(Xinhua) China’s central bank plans to issue 10 billion yuan (about 1.53 billion U.S. dollars) worth of bills in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Dutch bidding will be adopted as the tender mode for the fixed-rate bill, which will come with a par value of 100 yuan and repay principal and interest upon maturity of six months, the People’s Bank of China said in an online statement.

It will be the 12th issuance of central bank bills in Hong Kong this year.

The move aims to enrich yuan-investment products with high credit ratings in Hong Kong and improve the yield curve of yuan in the region, the central bank said.

Since November 2018, the bank has established a standard mechanism for issuing central bank bills in Hong Kong.

EIB backs CargoBeamer with €12.6 million to support deployment of new freight rail technology

 

·       Support for a cleaner and cost competitive transport alternative for cargo

·       Construction of three innovative rail freight terminals in Calais (France), Kaldenkirchen (Germany) and Domodossola (Italy)

·       The project is financed under the Future Mobility product, backed by the European Commission.

Today, the European Investment Bank Group and CargoBeamer AG signed a €12.6 million equity type financing in the form of a senior secured loan coupled with a profit sharing mechanism. The financing supports the construction and implementation of three new rail freight terminals in Calais (France), Kaldenkirchen (Germany) and Domodossola (Italy) to run combined transport rail services between these terminals as well as to other destinations. The Project will be implemented from 2020-2022. The EIB loan is backed by the Future Mobility facility (“FM”), a joint initiative established by the EIB and the European Commission under the Connecting Europe Facility (“CEF”) Debt Instrument.

CargoBeamer’s technology (video link) enables “combined road-rail transport” and allows transferring most truck cargo to rail. The company’s patented technology consists of rail wagons, innovative shipment terminals and logistics software. CargoBeamer’s system is compatible with 80% of the cargo trailers currently in use and thus offers a cleaner and cost competitive alternative when compared to road-transported freight.

“European road transport continues to have the largest share of freight inland transport, resulting in traffic congestions, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. With freight traffic expected to further grow, the modal shift to rail is becoming more important than ever,” said EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle. “Combined transport solutions such as road-to-rail can contribute to decarbonising transport and play an important role in achieving our goals towards a more eco-friendly, sustainable and efficient transport sector in Europe. That is why I am very pleased that the EIB, as the EU climate bank, supports an innovative company such as CargoBeamer.”

Adina Vălean, European Commissioner for Transport, added: “This loan will support our European Green Deal and Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy of greening freight transport. To accelerate the transition towards smart and sustainable transport, intermodality is a critical building block, and I am happy that we are able to support Cargobeamer in their effort to shift freight to rail.”

“An international network of terminals at carefully selected locations will be the key to success in our business. Therefore we are pleased about this financing package as an important step for our ambitious growth plan in the future,“ explains Dr. Markus Fischer, CFO of CargoBeamer. “We are convinced that combined transportation and the sustainable solution it offers will play an instrumental role in the modal shift of the upcoming years. We are happy that the EIB and the European Commission share our vision by announcing CargoBeamer as the third project supported by the Future Mobility Facility since it’s launch last year.”

CargoBeamer obtained the EU certification of its technology in 2013 (a crucial step in the highly regulated rail market) and since 2015, it has been successfully operating the route between Kaldenkirchen (Germany) and Domodossola (Italy). On this route the company has been able to capture about 7% of the road freight market in the corridor (excluding the broader hinterland) thus demonstrating that a significant modal shift from road to rail is possible. The first terminal fully using the CargoBeamer technology is currently under construction in Calais (France) and will be opened in mid-2021.

New Fuxing bullet trains to be put into service

New-type Fuxing bullet trains with a speed of 250 km per hour will soon be put into use on several railway lines, according to the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The CR300 bullet train, a new addition to the Fuxing bullet train family that now covers the speed range from 160 km to 350 km, will be put into service on the railways linking Hangzhou and Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhenjiang, Guiyang and Guangzhou, among others.

This marks an important step in China’s railway development, and shows that China will continue to lead the world in high-speed rail technology, according to the company.

So far, Fuxing bullet trains have operated 836 million km safely, transporting a total of 827 million passengers. It is expected that Fuxing bullet trains will be used in all provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland next year, the company said.

UK, France working to unblock cross-channel trade “as fast as possible”

France has closed its border with Britain for 48 hours, with no lorries or ferry passengers able to sail from the port of Dover.

Johnson said the disruption at Dover will not affect the vast majority of food and medical supplies, adding that the government has been preparing for such a situation for a while.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday that Britain and France are working to unblock the cross-channel trade “as fast as possible.”

Johnson made the statement when he was speaking at a virtual press conference at Downing Street after the French government banned trucks entering from Britain over concerns about the highly transmissible new coronavirus strain.

Johnson said he had just had “a very good call” with French President Emmanuel Macron to solve the issue.

“I have just spoken to President Macron, we had a very good call. And we both understand each other’s positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible,” said the prime minister.

A ferry crosses the Dover Strait heading for the Port of Dover on the first day after Brexit in Dover, Britain, Feb. 1, 2020.  (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)

“We are working with our friends across the Channel to unblock the flow of trade as fast as possible,” he said.

France has closed its border with Britain for 48 hours, with no lorries or ferry passengers able to sail from the port of Dover.

Johnson said the disruption at Dover will not affect the vast majority of food and medical supplies, adding that the government has been preparing for such a situation for a while.

“These delays are only occurring at Dover, only affect human-handled freight and that is only 20 percent of the total arriving from or departing to the European continent,” he said.

The prime minister said that he understands the anxieties of the other countries over the new virus strain, pledging to work with other countries to develop treatment.

More than 40 countries including Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, and Bulgaria have announced travel restrictions from Britain following the disclosure that the highly infectious new strain is widespread in parts of Britain.

Photo taken on Feb. 1, 2020 shows the Port of Dover on the first day after Brexit in Dover, Britain. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua)■

What changes will nanoelectronicsbring to our lives?

We are surrounded by nanoelectronics through products such as computers, mobile phones, sensors and electric cars. Nanoelectronics may also grow much stronger in the energy efficiency area in the near future. However, the sustainable growth faces several challenges

In nanoelectronics, miniaturised electronic circuits are integrated on semiconductor chips where the basic element is the transistor. The size of the transistors produced is under 100 nm. Andreas Wild is Executive Director of the ENIAC JU. The task of this public-private partnership is to coordinate European research in nanoelectronics. He sees many interesting changes coming with the evolution of nanoelectronics. “We have little electronics in the buildings, but the buildings are huge energy consumers. There will be an influx of nanoelectronics that will completely change the ways we are living in and using buildings, making them energy self-consistent, extremely comfortable and adaptable to the needs of the people. The buildings will be able to read how many people are inside, what are they doing, then adjust everything and also give the people a human interface to express their wishes. Rather than pilot projects this will be the norm. Europe has already issued regulations. I believe in the next five to ten years nobody will construct a building that haven’t got these features.”

Laurent Malier, CEO of the research center CEA-Leti in France, highlights another area where nanoelectronics may be prominent. “What we are going to explore more are nanoelectronic devices for biology and healthcare. It could be easy and low cost diagnostics. This is an area of growth in a large perspective,” he said.

The sustainable growth of nanoelectronics faces several challenges. “You see technological challenges, materials, processes and so forth. You see design challenges, how to put together billions of components quickly, reliably and predictably. Then there are systemic challenges, what are the functions that all these billions of transistors are supposed to achieve on every chip and how do they relate to the everyday life of the people using the devices,” Wild said.

Malier sees additional challenges. “One is the compromise between low electrical power consumption and very fast processing capability. The other one is lithography, the capability to reduce the size of features. The third one is to increase complexity with either 3D integration, stacking chips on each other, or integration of new functions.”
We are dependent on nanoelectronic devices and soon we might see a drastic reduction in our energy consumption thanks to the advances in this area.

Source: youris.com

 

The battle of the bulge

Deciphering satiety signals from the gut to the brain, could help devise smart food designed to communicate feeling of fullness to the brain, and thus help fight obesity

We know nutrients interact with gut cells, which dispatch chemical messengers – hormones– to the brain to signal “stomach full.” This messaging from our food to gut to brain is now being decoded to fight obesity.  

Until now, gastric bypass surgery has been the fastest way to treat obesity. Not only does it cause weight loss, but it can also cure diabetes in some. “The resolution is almost instantaneous indicating that mechanisms other than weight loss itself are responsible. This has turned the focus towards appetite-regulating hormones from the gut,” endocrinologist Jens Holst of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark tells youris.com. 

What if you could cause the same effects, without surgery? Holst discovered a small molecule in the gut, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which acts on parts of the brain that regulate appetite.  He is now involved with a EU funded research project, Full4Health, which aims to reveal how food can trigger signalling mechanisms communicating feelings of hunger or fullness to the brain. 

“There is a raft of hormones, which are all satiety hormones, which will tend to help terminate a meal,” says project coordinator Julian Mercer, obesity scientist at the University of Aberdeen, UK. “We don’t know much about which nutrients are involved and whether we can manipulate how food interacts with those signalling systems and how those systems are integrated at different levels in the brain.”

The project could help pinpoint future drugs for either obese people or those who have trouble consuming enough nutrients. “It would be even better if we could come up with smart food,” says Mercer.  Insights will feed into another project which seeks to develop ingredients capable to giving the feeling of fullness called SATIN.

The research stands out from similar previous studies by focusing on males and females, lean and overweight people, from four age groups including children, teenagers, adults and elderly.  “If we are looking to reformulate foods to come with additional benefits built into them, those reformulations will likely vary in different groups,” says Mercer. So no one size will fit all.

Steve Bloom, gut protein expert at Imperial College London, UK, says the project addresses a large problem with substantial research funds, but the aspirations are vague.  “It’s a worthy endeavour but I doubt any breakthrough will occur. I’d be delighted to be wrong,” he tells youris.com.

Its chance of success may be limited because studying internal satiety factors would not impact external factors affecting the way people eat. “It is very challenging and that is because feeling satiated does not necessarily stop people from eating,” comments Ellen van Kleef, behavioural expert at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. “Manipulating information about the nature of the food provided, [such as] caloric or fat content, or situational context, [by] framing a food as a meal versus a snack, influences perception, choice, satiety and the amount of food people eat,” van Kleef explains. “This interplay between internal signals of hunger and satiety and external signals makes it very challenging,” she adds.

Source: youris.com

Airborne water leak detection using an innovative ‘Triangle method’

Researchers have used planes and drones equipped with multispectral and infrared cameras to detect water losses in pipes in rural areas. The data has been analysed through a pioneering method combining the measure of the temperature of the surface and the vegetation cover fraction

This year is on course to be one of the hottest since measurements began and Europe saw its joint second warmest June on record. While the global soaring temperature is heavily impacting water resources, it is crucial to address the leakages in pipes and transmission mains. In some European countries almost half of the channelled water is lost before it reaches the tap.

A high share of the losses happen in large diameter mains crossing rural areas, where companies have trouble monitoring them due to traditional field surveys being costly and time consuming.

European researchers have therefore developed a surveillance service using planes – to survey wide areas – and drones –- for sites difficult to access – equipped with multispectral and infrared cameras. To analyse the data, they used the so called Triangle method. It is quite a pioneering approach to detecting water leaks, which combines surface temperature measures and a vegetation index.

It is based on the fact that leaks lead to lower surface temperatures, which can be detected by a thermal infrared camera. However the thermal response of vegetated soils is different from the bare ones, making it difficult to obtain an unequivocal answer in terms of moisture content and potential water loss. The researchers therefore added a parameter measuring the vegetation cover fraction, which is inferred by hyperspectral cameras, to get a temperature-dependent humidity scale which varies according to the vegetation.

The system has been developed under the EU project WADI, coordinated by youris.com. Its executive director Elena Gaboardi shares the most important final results of the study.

Why is this technology financially competitive?
Limiting water leaks curbs the operational costs of the utilities, including the energy costs for pumping water, while increasing the amount of water that can be sold. This, in turn, limits the risk of raising prices for the customers.
Compared to competing technologies, the WADI system’s economic benefit lies in the efficiency of operations: it can monitor complex networks and long pipes (50 to 90 km/h depending on the use of drones or planes) and, as it’s airborne, can reach inaccessible or secluded locations with all kind of terrain. Moreover, the cost of conventional ground detection techniques ranges from 1,000 to 5,000 euro per kilometre, while the airborne technology ranges from 50 to 200 euro per kilometre.

What are the main advantages for the environment?
Besides the savings in power consumption for water extraction and distribution, the identification of water leaks would obviously lead to more available water resources. Ultimately the amount of chemicals used in water treatment plants for human water delivery would also be lower.
In this context, we applied an environmental and economic life cycle assessment and compared the results with the mainstream technology, which is the acoustic method. We took into account, for instance, the fuel consumed during the aircraft flights (MAV), the impact of manufacturing planes on some indicators such as freshwater eutrophication [as a consequence of the release of industrial wastewater, ed. note] and water depletion, the human toxicity indicator related to the mercury contained in the infrared detector of the cameras.
For the drone flights (UAV), we focused on the impact of batteries on the ozone, metal resources and human health. In particular, we considered the electricity consumption to charge them and the need to replace them during the drone’s lifetime.
It was estimated that applying the WADI techniques (both technologies (MAV and UAV) to 5% of European water distribution systems could potentially reduce 166.5 million kg of CO₂/year, by cutting the energy consumption for the water supplying. In comparison to the carbon footprint associated with the MAV and UAV WADI units (270,000 kg CO₂eq and 545 kg CO₂eq respectively), the benefits are enormous.

You did two aerial campaigns in France and Portugal. What are the most important results from the field testing?
The campaign in France was the first test in a real environment. We validated our equipment and fine-tuned our measurement strategy. Afterwards, the two surveys in Portugal showed remarkably better results. The images collected during the UAV and MAV flights were processed and analysed, and potential leakage events were identified. Each detection event was then classified as true positive/true negative /false positive /false negative and was associated to other parameters, namely: the technology used (UAV/MAV), the environmental conditions, the vegetation type and soil type, humidity, soil temperature, irrigation presence and precipitation in the ten days previous to the flight.
All in all the system proved able to detect water in the soil in approximately 70% of cases, while the performance of the technology in discovering actual water leaks was approximately 50%. Most importantly, we observed that the accuracy of the system in targeting true events has improved significantly over time, from one campaign to another. We are therefore confident that a larger baseline of cases would further improve the performance.

What are the best conditions for using the WADI technology?
The technology works best in agricultural zones with bare soils, crops at the early stage of development and mixed areas. It doesn’t perform as well in forest areas. Results also suggest that the solution work well in clay and sandy clay soils but not so much in silty clay soils.
The complexity or diameter of the pipes to be investigated and the type of technology used (UAV vs MAV) don’t affect performance. Weather conditions, on the contrary, may do so. For instance, the campaign in France was carried out after heavy rains and that made it difficult to detect leaks correctly.
The water utilities that tested WADI helped us in identifying the improvements needed and they may well continue to use the technology, thus contributing to its improvement.
On the technical side, the performances will need to be enhanced, especially on terrains with specific or abundant vegetation. Moreover, the time between the flight and the data analysis should be reduced and not take more than one month.

What will happen after the end of the research project? Will water utilities be able to use this technology? When?
The service is now at the prototype stage. A group of partners have prepared a roadmap for the development of a full service in the future, the horizon being about one year from the end of the project and 2022 for the commercialisation.

Source: youris.com

Genetic testing in the steak-house

DNA analyses may help select the best breeds by predicting how beef will taste once it reaches our palate

Using state-of-the art genomics to predict whether a piece of beef will be tender enough may sound excessive. Until now, the meat industry has been using low-tech methods to assess beef quality, based on carcass weight, hanging method and pattern of muscle fat stripes, also known as marbling. However, traditional approaches may lack competitiveness at an industrial scale. “The meat industry needs more precise and consistent ways to predict the quality of beef before it reaches the shelves,” Geraldine Duffy, tells youris.com. She is the Head of food safety at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Dublin, Ireland, who coordinates the EU-funded project ProsafeBeef.

As a part of the project, about 3,000 genes involved in muscle biology were selected by Jean-François Hocquette and his group at the Herbivore Research Unit of the National Agronomic Research Institute (INRA) in Theix, France, after mining the scientific literature. These candidates may have an impact on tenderness, flavour and juiciness: three main parameters that influence meat quality. “These genes belong to different families: those which regulate fat, connective tissue and protein contents of muscles, respectively”, remarks Hocquette.

An additional family of genes associated with meat quality is that of so-called “heat shock protein(HSP)” genes, the researchers found. They are also known to be involved in processes such as tissue damage and death.

These findings are “interesting and encouraging […] and the association of heat shock protein (HSP) genes with meat tenderness is convincing”, Hasan Khatib tells youris.com. He is an associate professor at the department of Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. However, he adds: “since HSP genes are involved in so many other processes in the cell, I still do not have a comprehensive idea on  how animals will be selected in breeding programs based on [these genes]”.

The work of the French team led to the development of a DNA chip, capable of quickly analysing the selected genes’ activity in beef muscle samples.  In parallel, a panel of experts tasted the same beef samples and gave a score on their quality.  They then compared the two sets of data, from genetic and more mundane sensory appreciation. The results, recently published on the journal Biomed Central Veterinary Research, show that genetic analysis can indeed help to predict the quality of meat. Some of the genes analysed in the study accounted for up to 40% of the variability in tenderness between different samples.

“The next step will be to combine all these markers and use an algorithm to predict meat quality more precisely,” comments Hocquette. Some genetic tests for meat quality are already available, but they rely only on a few markers and do not work for most breeds used in the EU, he adds. Ultimately, one of the scientists’ goals is now to establish a consumer-oriented label of certification that would include genetic criteria.

Luciano Pinotti, a professor at the department of Veterinary Sciences and Technology for Food Safety of the University of Milan, Italy, welcomes the application of genomics to meat quality selection: “[the] ‘omics’ approach to meat quality is innovative, and may lead to long term improvements.”  Yet, for the beef eaters among youris.com readers, a little more patience is required before this method yields the perfect steak.

Source: youris.com

Security of 5G networks: EU Member States complete national risk assessments

Following the Commission Recommendation for a common European approach to the security of 5G networks, 24 EU Member States have now completed the first step and submitted national risk assessments. These assessments will feed into the next phase, a EU-wide risk assessment which will be completed by 1 October. Commissioner for the Security Union, Julian King, and Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, welcomed this important step forward and said:

“We are pleased to see that most Member States have now submitted their risk assessments. Following the support expressed by the European Council on 22 March for a concerted approach, Member States responded promptly to our call for concrete measures to help ensure the cybersecurity of 5G networks across the EU. The national risk assessments are essential to make sure that Member States are adequately prepared for the deployment of the next generation of wireless connectivity that will soon form the backbone of our societies and economies.

We urge Member States to remain committed to the concerted approach and to use this important step to gain momentum for a swift and secure rollout of 5G networks. Close EU-wide cooperation is essential both for achieving strong cybersecurity and for reaping the full benefits, which 5G will have to offer for people and businesses.

The completion of the risk assessments underlines the commitment of Member States not only to set high standards for security but also to make full use of this groundbreaking technology. We hope that the outcomes will be taken into account in the process of 5G spectrum auctions and network deployment, which is taking place across the EU now and in the coming months. Several Member States have already taken steps to reinforce applicable security requirements while others are considering introducing new measures in the near future.

We need all key players, big and small, to accelerate their efforts and join us in building a common framework aimed at ensuring consistently high levels of security. We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with Member States as we begin the work on an EU-wide risk assessment, due to be complete by 1 October, that will help to develop a European approach to protecting the integrity of 5G.”

National risk assessments include an overview of:

·    the main threats and actors affecting 5G networks;

·    the degree of sensitivity of 5G network components and functions as well as other assets; and

·    various types of vulnerabilities, including both technical ones and other types of vulnerabilities, such as those potentially arising from the 5G supply chain.

In addition, the work on national risk assessments involved a range of responsible actors in the Member States, including cybersecurity and telecommunication authorities and security and intelligence services, strengthening their cooperation and coordination.

Next Steps

Based on the information received, Member States, together with the Commission and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), will prepare a coordinated EU-wide risk assessment by 1 October 2019. In parallel, ENISA is analysing the 5G threat landscape as an additional input. 

By 31 December 2019, the NIS Cooperation Group that leads the cooperation efforts together with the Commission will develop and agree on a toolbox of mitigating measures to address the risks identified in the risk assessments at Member State and EU level.

Following the recent entry into force of the Cybersecurity Act at the end of June, the Commission and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity will set up an EU-wide certification framework. Member States are encouraged to cooperate with the Commission and the EU Agency for Cybersecurity to prioritise a certification scheme covering 5G networks and equipment.

By 1 October 2020, Member States should assess in cooperation with the Commission, the effects of measures taken to determine whether there is a need for further action. This assessment should take into account the coordinated European risk assessment.

Background

Fifth generation (5G) networks will form essential digital infrastructure in the future, connecting billions of objects and systems, including in critical sectors such as energy, transport, banking, and health, as well as industrial control systems carrying sensitive information and supporting safety systems.

The European Commission recommended on 26 March 2019 a set of concrete actions to assess cybersecurity risks of 5G networks and to strengthen preventive measures, following the support from Heads of State or Government for a concerted approach to the security of 5G networks.

The Commission called on Member States to complete national risk assessments and review national measures as well as to work together at EU level on a coordinated risk assessment and a common toolbox of mitigating measures.