The Cenit VERDE project, headed by SEAT, wins award for contribution to environmental sustainability

[ahmed_7erzon]

The Cenit VERDE project, headed by SEAT, today won an award from the Capital magazine. The members of the jury thereby recognized the contribution made by Cenit VERDE to environmental sustainability through its research into the future manufacture and marketing of eco-friendly vehicles in Spain – mainly plug-in hybrids and electric cars.

The Capital Madrid awards are bestowed on the best ten initiatives, projects or companies which make a significant contribution to the city of Madrid’s maintenance and improvement of standards of quality of life such as health and well-being, a commitment to culture and sport as well as environmental sustainability. The Cenit VERDE project gained its award in the latter category, since it helps to make Madrid a more sustainable city from the environmental point of view.

Ramón Paredes, Vice-president of Governmental and Institutional Relations for SEAT and the VW Group in Spain, picked up the award on behalf of the companies and universities participating in the project. Paredes said that this award came as “recognition of the commitment of SEAT as well as all the companies and collaborating universities working towards more sustainable mobility”. He then added that “the Cenit VERDE project is an outstanding example of a public-private partnership so as to successfully tackle one of the great challenges facing this country, namely the development of an eco-friendly vehicle”. The award ceremony was presided over by Ana Botella, second deputy mayor and delegate for the Environment at Madrid City Hall.

The VERDE project was started up at the end of 2009 with the aim of researching and generating the know-how necessary to promote eco-friendly vehicles. The project will extend to 2012 and is headed by SEAT’s Technical Center, with the participation of 16 companies from sectors such as car manufacturing, infrastructure, electronics and energy (Cegasa, Siemens, Lear, Cobra, Ficosa, Endesa and Iberdrola, to mention just some) as well as 13 universities and research centres.

The budget for the VERDE project stands at 34 million euros, and is partially financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through one of the programmes under the National Strategic Consortia for Technical Research, or CENIT in the original Spanish initials. The CTM Foundation Technology Centre provides the administrative, technical and scientific coordination