Tonight, four innovations were awarded the Netherlands’ most prestigious prize in the field of mobility: the Automotive Innovation Award (AIA). TomTom’s Orbis Maps won both the grand prize for the innovation with the greatest impact and the award for Accessibility. Orbis Maps combines map layers from TomTom with data from cars and other providers. The real-time integration of these various map layers creates the largest map ecosystem in the world.
LeydenJar received the award in the Sustainability category for its work to develop an anode – the minus pole of a battery – made from pure silicon. Total Safety Solutions won the award for Safety with its Emergency Plug® for electric vehicles, and InMotion, with students from TU Eindhoven, won the Student Award for developing the Next Generation Battery Pack, the fastest charging battery pack in a race car in the world.
Jury chair Jan Peter Balkenende, who presented the awards, praised both the quantity and quality of the innovations submitted. “We show that as a small country we make global impact with our innovations. So these innovations deserve all the attention!”
Grand Prize and award in the Accessibility category: TomTom
Until recently, every tech giant built their own base map with their own unique map layers on top. TomTom is the founder of the Overture platform, where it works with Meta, Microsoft and Amazon to provide one open-source base map. Public and private parties can offer their unique map layers through the Overture platform (free or paid). Orbis Maps is TomTom’s product for autonomous driving, which can combine its own map layers, in real time, with data from cars and other providers. This creates the largest “map ecosystem” in the world. With this Dutch innovation, not only can the whole world be mapped, but the whole world can do the mapping, too.
Award in the Sustainability category: LeydenJar
LeydenJar is working on the development of an anode – the minus pole of a battery – made of pure silicon and which can achieve a 70% higher energy density. Compared to a traditional battery of the same size, this means high capacity, lightning-fast charging capabilities, reduced environmental impact, reduced CO2 emissions, and lower production costs. In other words, LeydenJar’s innovation can achieve the same performance with a much smaller battery. This helps make electric driving more affordable and accessible.
Award in the Safety category: Total Safety Solutions
Total Safety Solutions has developed a universal brake for electric vehicles: the Emergency Plug®. This instantly disables electric and hybrid vehicles in case of an emergency or maintenance work, preventing unpredictable behavior and creating a safe working environment. The otherwise extensive protocol, which also differs for every vehicle, is thus reduced to a few seconds for first responders.
Student Award: InMotion, TU Eindhoven
The Next Generation Battery Pack can charge in less than four minutes and is currently the fastest charging battery pack in a race car in the world. This enables electric refueling, where an electric car recharges as fast as a fossil fuel car refuels. To extract the heat released during the rapid battery charging process, cell-level cooling has been applied to the pack, individually cooling each cell.
Automotive Innovation Dinner
The anniversary edition of the presentation of the awards took place at Studio 21 in Hilversum, where an exclusive Automotive Innovation Dinner was organized for the occasion. Led by presenter Roelof Hemmen, the dinner featured several fascinating discussions on the themes of accessibility, sustainability and safety. The nearly 300 guests were also treated to an interesting presentation by Stephan Herbst, who is responsible for developments within hydrogen and sustainable mobility at Toyota Motor Europe. The spotlight, however, was claimed by the 11 finalists of the Automotive Innovation Award.
The event was the culmination of a process that began last summer with a call for innovative organizations in the Dutch automotive sector to submit their innovations. That call was heard en masse: the jury received no fewer than 43 entries, a record. Tonight’s winners ended up leaving the other entries far behind – all of which can also be viewed on the Automotive Innovation Award website. “To stay ahead in the field of innovation, it is important that market parties, private and public, know how to find each other in the Netherlands, share knowledge and (continue to) cooperate,” said Balkenende. “That’s why the Automotive Innovation Award remains so relevant!”
Automotive Innovation Award Foundation
The Automotive Innovation Award (AIA), an initiative of ANWB, BOVAG, LeasePlan, RAI Association, RAI Automotive Industry NL and Roland Berger, is presented every two years by the independent Automotive Innovation Award Foundation. The award highlights innovations in the Dutch automotive sector, which accounts for an annual turnover of EUR 90 billion and 100,000 jobs. The AIA focuses on challenges such as environmental impact and the transition to more sustainable mobility, and is open to diverse parties within the mobility industry. Submissions are judged on their innovative value, impact on mobility, economic return and applicability, with the aim to strengthen the sector’s innovation capacity.