Zagreb, May 15, 2023 – The Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) of the European Commission has approved a grant of 179,5 million euros to the company Project 3 Mobility.
The Croatian company is being granted funds for the project "Research, development and production of new mobility vehicles and supporting infrastructure", which is registered as a part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The process of approving the project at all levels lasted almost a year and a half.
"This is a big moment for us. The process through which European Union bodies and institutions approved the project was extremely long and demanding, and it lasted for over two years from the time we started initial discussions about our project. We are proud that we successfully fulfilled all the criteria and demonstrated the value of our project to Croatian and EU institutions. During the past two years, it was necessary to demonstrate the alignment of our project with the European green and digital transition goals, in addition to providing added value in a number of societal aspects, all to justify the EU's financial support for its development. The approved grant is only part of the funds needed for the project's development, and Project 3 Mobility will invest at least EUR 350 million of its funds before going to market. Part of these funds have already been received from private investors while part will be collected in the next two years," said Marko Pejković, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Project 3 Mobility.
Project 3 Mobility is developing a new urban mobility ecosystem that will significantly improve mobility patterns and transportation systems in urban areas. The ecosystem consists of three main components: the autonomous electric vehicle, specialized infrastructure, and a complete service platform. Furthermore, Project 3 Mobility will build a production facility in Croatia for the large-scale production of autonomous electric vehicles. The production facility will put Croatia on the map as a country that encourages the development of key future technologies that will bring numerous benefits to the community and create significant progress in the direction of digital and green technologies.