Europe kicks off steering meeting of its new connected & autonomous vehicle alliance
Recently, on 28 October 2025, the European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA) held its first pre-Steering Committee meeting, hosted by the European Commission and opened by Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen. The event drew high-level representatives from 26 of Europe’s leading car-makers, suppliers and technology organisations, marking a tangible launch to the strategic push announced by President Ursula von der Leyen back in September.
ECAVA is positioned as a forum to help Europe reclaim technological leadership in the mobility sector, focusing on software-defined vehicles (SDV), artificial intelligence, in-vehicle computing, hardware building blocks, and autonomous driving systems. Key early priorities laid out at the meeting include scaling an open-source SDV ecosystem, boosting cooperation on advanced chip designs and AI models, and accelerating cross-border large-scale testing of automated vehicles.
The timing is critical: the European automotive industry is navigating rapid transformation from internal-combustion vehicles to electrification, digitalisation and autonomy — while global competition intensifies. ECAVA aims to bring together OEMs, suppliers, tech firms, startups and research organisations under a common roadmap, supported by EU funding calls launched under the Digital Europe programme. Organisations interested in joining must apply by 30 November 2025 for the first wave of working-group participation.
For the industry this means a more coordinated approach to sharing non-differentiating software and hardware components, faster time-to-market for innovations, and stronger European supply-chain resilience. For consumers, the hope is that smarter, safer and more connected vehicles will arrive sooner—and with standards and cooperation across Europe rather than fragmented national efforts. Scientists, engineers and policymakers will now work side-by-side to align technology, regulation and deployment — and ECAVA’s first meeting underlines that the era of purely mechanical-centric vehicles is giving way to one dominated by software and systems.
Source: futurium.ec.europa.eu
