e-mobility
Why the Germans love hybrid drives
Kia EV9 Concept 2021
© press-inform – the press office
The automotive world is in upheaval like never before in its more than 120 years of history. Electric cars are becoming more and more popular. But in a market like Germany, plug-in hybrids are more popular than ever. However, their contribution to achieving the climate goals is controversial.
Cars are of central importance on the way to a CO2-neutral world, and the climate targets adopted last year cannot be achieved without electric drives. For this purpose, the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research analyzed the effects of the German climate targets on alternative drives. “Purely electrically powered vehicles are already commercially available on a large scale and represent the most energy-efficient solution,” explains Prof. Dr. Martin Wietschel, Head of the Competence Center Energy Technologies and Energy Systems. According to Fraunhofer calculations, battery-powered vehicles have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions even with today’s electricity mix. With an electric vehicle purchased in 2020, the emissions are halved compared to a petrol engine. With an increasing share of renewable energies in the electricity mix, this advantage should be around 60 percent by 2030. Even if the goals in the electricity sector are only partially achieved, according to the calculations of the Fraunhofer researchers, BEVs and also plug-in hybrids perform better than petrol or diesel vehicles.
PHEVs can contribute to reducing greenhouse gases in the short term if they do at least 40 percent of their journeys electrically. However, since they also have to be operated with synthetic fuels in the medium and long term in order to achieve the climate goals, most experts consider them to be purely a bridging technology. In addition to the life cycle assessment of the various drive technologies, the Fraunhofer experts also examined their cost-effectiveness. In accordance with the total cost of ownership approach, they took into account all the costs of purchasing and using a car from an economic point of view. Here, too, electric cars are proving to be the cheapest sustainable option in the short, medium and long term. They remain economically advantageous compared to other alternative drives even if one assumes that the battery has to be replaced halfway through its useful life. According to the calculations, synthetic electricity-based fuels for combustion engines are not economical either now or in the foreseeable future due to the high fuel costs. Fuel cell vehicles are also currently scarcely available. According to the Fraunhofer Institute, in the coming decade they can represent a supplement to battery vehicles for large and heavy vehicles with high range requirements.
race for competitiveness
All of the drive technologies examined still have a high ecological rucksack in the manufacturing process, which noticeably reduces the positive result. Compared to conventional vehicles, electric cars, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen cars are particularly critical in terms of resource consumption, such as lithium, cobalt or platinum group metals. “Around the world, there has been strong growth in patent and trademark applications in the field of alternative drive technologies for several years,” explains Dr. Luisa Sievers from the Fraunhofer Institute.
For around 15 years, Germany has been in first place in all categories of sustainable drive technologies and digitization for trademark applications at the European Union Intellectual Property Office EUIPO. The United States has the highest number of patent applications for autonomous driving alone. However, Germany’s technological leadership, as suggested by the patent analysis, has not yet become apparent when comparing the shares of BEVs in the sales of the manufacturers. The share of electric cars in passenger car sales, alongside Tesla, is very high, especially among Chinese manufacturers. On the other hand, German brands such as Volkswagen, BMW, Audi and Mercedes already achieve similarly high global market shares for electric vehicles as for cars with internal combustion engines. With plug-in hybrids in particular, they are leaders thanks to premium brands such as BMW or Mercedes and currently account for around half of all electric drives in Germany. According to the Fraunhofer experts, the focus of the funding should be shifted in the direction of purely electric vehicles in the short to medium term.
According to the Fraunhofer Institute, in order to remain competitive in the long term, companies should be involved in all central value-added stages of alternative drives – especially batteries, electric motors and power electronics. In addition to the accelerated expansion of the charging infrastructure, the researchers consider the development of a strategic overall concept for autonomous mobility to be particularly necessary. This should also explicitly take into account the sustainability of the mobility system, for example using car sharing models.