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Electric motors will power the next generation of cars. Given the necessity to reduce our fossil fuel consumption for the sake of the environment in addition to the uncontrollably fluctuating oil prices and scarce energy resources, electric cars will be the embodiment of 21st century transportation. The electrification of cars and public transport makes great sense and is a unique opportunity. Now it looks like all major car makers have realized that they have no choice but to adapt to the fundamental changes which are going on in the auto industry. The situation is especially interesting since car makers do not really have a lead in electric car development to companies from other sectors. Actually, the shift away from cars with combustion engines is a big opportunity for electronics companies, battery manufacturers and start ups. Future electric cars will be built very differently from today’s cars and the technological challenge is the battery not the conception of the vehicle. The only way for a manufacturer of electric cars to distinguish itself from competitors is leading in battery technology. Electric motors are rather simple, not very sophisticated but mature and relatively cheap in comparison with efficient, highly optimized combustion engines which require lots of technical expertise. Consequently, car makers have been courting battery manufacturers for years now. Yesterday, the largest European car maker Volkswagen (VW) teamed up with the Japanese electronics company Toshiba to develop electric vehicles. The two companies will be cooperating on the development of electric drive units for Volkswagen’s planned “New Small Family” series. They intend to can ereate an lectric-powered version of the subcompact concept car UP!. VW aims to become the first car maker to produce “an affordable, emissions-free, safe mass-produced electric car”.

The city car UP! which will be a small car with high fuel economy especially suitable for urban areas is pretty similar to the new Toyota IQ which is already on sale in some European countries and in Japan.

Despite Volkswagen’s intention to become a front-runner in electric car technology, executives highlight the need for massive investments and research, indicating that an electrified version of the UP! might still be years away. Competitors like GM, Mitsubishi and others appear to be ahead of Volkswagen since their plug-in electric vehicles are almost ready for the market. Generally it can be said that German car makers have been lagging behind for some time, because they were mainly working on further efficiency improvements and on advancing fuel cell technology, clean diesel and hydrogen cars. However, this is about to change since electric cars are about to prove within reach while hydrogen-powered vehicles are still decades away and are still fairly inefficient due to a number of reasons, mainly because the efficient, safe storage of hydrogen poses a major obstacle. BMW is testing electric car technology with its Mini brand. The world’s largest premium car makers is leasing 500 electric versions of its Mini to Americans for about $800 a month to gain experiences with the technology which could prove very useful to develop a completely new electric vehicle that is ideal for daily use in urban areas.

Volkswagen is already working together with Sanyo, a leading producer of batteries for hybrid cars.  

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4027716,00.html

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 6:21 PM and is filed under Electric Cars & Auto Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.