Germany took a wrong course in vehicle powertrains initially resisting government support for electric vehicles. Some say it was to protect its car industry which was chasing up blind alleys such as hydrogen in internal combustion engines. Considerable effort was expended on fuel cell vehicles but Daimler has recently announced that it is putting them on the back burner to concentrate on pure electric vehicles. Many German industrial and commercial vehicle manufacturers are also going electric.
"We've done the maths: if we want to hit the CO2 reduction target for traffic for 2030, we need 3 - 12% of the fleet to be electric by 2020, 30 - 32% by 2025, and 60 - 70% by 2030." says Maria Krautzberger, head of Germany's Federal Environment Agency UBA. To make it, she calls for EV quotas as well as e-bike incentives in Germany.
However, this requires much more support from the government and more effort and Tesla level inspiration from the German motor industry because a high proportion of Germans buy German. BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen are notable in announcing crash programs to do that and the U turn goes beyond cars to electric buses, trucks and vans, this extending to new German players in EV manufacturing such as Sono Motors launching its street legal solar car - energy independent - in 2018. Deutsce Post DHL is ramping up electric van output to 20000 yearly. Lithium-ion battery research and production in Germany now has a rocket under it.
Learn more at IDTechEx Show! Berlin May 10-11 with nine parallel conferences, 200 exhibitors, 3000 paying delegates and, on May 9 and 12, 25 optional Masterclasses. In the conference, Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing, Sono Motors will present on that energy independent pure electric car and Daimler will present its new view of the future. Across the whole event the German Universities, research institutes and manufacturers will be making exciting new announcements.
Advanced System Design GmbH will be exhibiting the 'Vanquisher', the world's first hybrid-electric amphibious all-terrain alpine rescue transporter. Yes, this boat can climb a 45 degree slope thanks to state of the art supercapacitors, silicon carbide power semiconductors and switched reluctance motors on all four drives.
However, the coverage is global not just German. That global view is reinforced by new IDTechEx reports. They include the overview of land, water and airborne EVs Electric Vehicles 2017-2027: Forecasts, Analysis, Opportunities, plus reports on EVs for various applications from mining to mobility for the disabled and reports on key EV components and systems including the new key enabling technology, Energy Harvesting/ Regeneration for Electric Vehicles 2017-2027.
