First ECAVA Forum Unites Leaders to Drive Autonomous Mobility from Collaboration to Deployment
On 23 June, the first European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA) Forum took place at SQUARE in Brussels. Under the theme “From collaboration to deployment,” EU leaders and industry innovators gathered to accelerate Europe’s connected and autonomous vehicle ecosystem. The Forum united policymakers and industry leaders to push AV technologies from early collaboration toward real‑world deployment.
The event kicked off with an opening keynote by Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President, European Commission, followed by a panel discussion in which senior automotive executives exchanged views on key strategic themes, including Europe’s tech sovereignty, competitive positioning, challenges in scaling from pilots to deployment, and the industrial and regulatory conditions needed to accelerate market uptake. Next was the panel “Gaps in Europe: What are investment and technology gaps and opportunities in the digital European automotive ecosystems?”, in which speakers discussed the structural challenges holding Europe back and addressed barriers to scaling AI-powered mobility, including accessto talent, data, and investment.
In the next session, “Opportunities for Europe: International partnerships and ecosystems,” speakers explored strategic alliances at industry level, along with opportunities and challenges in forming autonomous-driving ecosystems. The speakers illustrated partnerships between EU and non-EU actors on different technology topics such as Advanced ADAS L2+ for passenger vehicles, Autonomous trucking solutions, and Industry collaborations on Automotive Chiplets.
The forum closed with a session titled “Insights and Learnings from Autonomous Vehicle Deployments – Towards the ADACities Initiative,” in which leading actors from across the autonomous mobility ecosystem shared lessons from real-world deployments and discussed how these experiences can inform the emerging ADACities initiative.
Background:
The Commission’s Automotive Action Plan announced the creation of a European Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Alliance (ECAVA) bringing together stakeholders across the automotive value chain. ECAVA was launched in October 2025 with a mandate to coordinate and accelerate the technological development of software-defined, AI-powered, connected and autonomous vehicles, reinforcing the competitiveness and technological sovereignty of Europe’s automotive industry.
