A new global alliance chaired by Prince Albert II of Monaco and convened by The Climate Group has set a target of getting 1 million more electrical vehicles on the road in the next five years than automakers had planned to bring to market.

The EV20 alliance of businesses and government leaders was announced today at the opening ceremony of Climate Week NYºC 2010. [Reports, analyses and other coverage of the week's events are available at GreenBiz.com/ClimateWeek2010.]

The group includes global fleet owner TNT, auto manufacturers PSA Peugeot Citroën and Smith Electric Vehicles, Johnson Controls Inc., Better Place and Deutsche Bank. The state governments of Basque Country, New York, Quebec, South Australia and Victoria also joined the group.

"The rapid growth of an e-car market will cut city pollution and global greenhouse gas emissions helping to conserve our climate and our energy resources," said Prince Albert II. "The development of EV fleets could also help to shift the way we use and store energy."

EV20 members have agreed to work together over the next three years to pursue targets that they believe will change the game on the EV market. The business and government partners aim to achieve this through brokering international fleet procurement alliances, developing national, state and municipal policy frameworks, and financing solutions.

"EV20 aims to connect the leaders in the field, speed up the learning process and pool resources," said Jim Walker, a cofounder of The Climate Group and the organization's director of International Programmes & Strategy. "We're delighted that these influential organizations have joined us in this effort. Electric vehicles are cleaner and more efficient, even based on today's energy sources. Governments, banks and businesses around the world are grappling with the same challenge: How to harness the potential of plug-in vehicles for their citizens, workers and investors."

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. government recently invested $2.4 billion to develop next-generation batteries and electric drive components. This could lead to tens of thousands of US manufacturing jobs and half a million batteries a year by late 2014. Later this year, the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt will reach US showrooms.

The Climate Group's EV20 meeting in New York City is the latest in a series of meetings to build an international "coalition of the willing" to rapidly advance the commercial deployment of EVs around the world. There will be further meetings at the UN climate talks in Cancun (Mexico) later this year.  The alliance is made possible with support from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Dutch Postcode Lottery and the HSBC Climate Partnership.

TNT CEO Peter Bakker said, "TNT is proud to be a partner of The Climate Group as we believe electric vehicles are at the brink of revolutionizing the transport sector. There is a perfect fit for electric vehicles in our pick up and delivery fleet with relatively short distances driven and a high number of stops. On top of that, electric vehicles can address the increasing problem of inner city pollution. Now that the technology of electric vehicles has made a leap forward, we see the vehicles playing a prominent role in our emission reduction strategy, Planet Me."

Next Page: EV20 business partners and government leaders speak out.