Friedrich Elektrotechnik und Elektromobilität

When the term electromobility is heard these days, many people think of cars with a short range and hardly any charging stations. That's not entirely wrong - but it's not right either. At least it is no longer correct.

Range is a much-cited argument for not investing in electric cars. Yet most people hardly drive 100 km at a stretch. Even if you are extremely sporty on the road - every electric car can do 100 km these days, apart from light vehicles. If you have your own charger at home, you can get to work, the shops, sports and events every day without having to worry about charging stations.

It becomes more difficult if you don't have the possibility of installing your own charging station. Then you have to rely on public charging points - or the option of charging at work. There are meanwhile many public charging stations - and new ones are being added every day. The Federal Network Agency shows all public charging points on its charging point map. There are also many privately operated charging points, which can be found alongside the public charging points using various apps.

Of course, the nearest charging point is usually not on your doorstep - and is often occupied by other vehicles. And you also need time, because charging with a type 2 plug takes a few hours to recharge a battery.

With DC fast charging, most vehicles can be charged to 80% in around half an hour. However, in the interests of battery life, this is only recommended for long journeys. Since you should take a half-hour break after two hours of uninterrupted driving anyway, it's no extra effort.

Nevertheless, it is of course not as convenient as with a combustion engine, where you only have to go to the next gas station to get your full range again.

With slight limitations compared to a combustion engine, you can definitely say that electric cars are suitable for everyday use. This raises the question of what needs to happen for the remaining disadvantages compared to the combustion engine to disappear.

This is where battery technology comes into play, because batteries are the reason for these disadvantages. Consequently, research is being carried out into chemical compositions and molecular structures that enable batteries with fast charging without reducing their service life. At the same time, the weight of the batteries must also be significantly reduced in order to increase their range.

Smaller improvements can be expected in the near future with solid-state batteries, the production of which is currently complex and expensive - not (yet) suitable for the mass market. Sodium-ion batteries also appear promising, but still need to be further developed for series applications.

If you would like to know more about batteries, you can find a lot of information in the free eBook “Sustainability and the future of electric car batteries” (only available in German).

When the batteries are ready in a few years' time, another obstacle will have to be overcome: The availability of electricity to charge the vehicles. Since the phasing out of nuclear power plants, the electricity generators (power stations, wind and solar plants) are often no longer close to the major electricity consumers ( metropolitan areas and industrial sites). The planned phase-out of coal as an energy source does not make the situation any better. This is why the federal government passed the Energy Line Expansion Act (EnLAG) back in 2009. Since then, all grid expansion projects under this law have been published on the website www.netzausbau.de, from planning to completion.

This is one part of the necessary measures. The other part is to provide a sufficient number of charging stations. This does not mean public wall boxes, but fast charging stations. Just as we take it for granted today to drive to a gas station to fill up with fuel, in a few years it will be common to charge your car at an electric charging station for the next 500 km. Or even 1,000 km. Always assuming that battery technology will allow this by then.

The big advantage of electric charging stations compared to gas stations is the much lower requirements. No tanks have to be buried in the ground, so no sophisticated water protection is required. All you need is a sufficient power supply line from the nearest transformer station to the charging station. There are hardly any operating costs, which opens up completely new business models. Some supermarkets already offer charging stations so that customers can conveniently charge their vehicles while shopping.

Charging at different charging stations is still hampered by another issue - there is no standardized payment system. Drivers of electric vehicles are faced with a patchwork of different providers, each of which operates its own billing model. Chip cards, each with their own authentication, are widespread.

Since 2016, the Charging Point Ordinance (LSV) has actually stipulated that publicly accessible charging points must function without authentication. However, the LSV was already subject to severe criticism before it came into force - and still is today. As an implementation of EU Directive 2014/94/EU, it deviates from it in many details and leads to considerable bureaucratic effort. As a result, it has still not been implemented across the board. You can find out more about the Charging Station Ordinance on Wikipedia. Nevertheless, the LSV has led to more and more providers joining forces and offering so-called e-roaming. But even here there are several providers and not every charging station can be used with all providers.

And finally, inexpensive entry-level models are needed. There are currently hardly any offers under €20,000. While combustion engines still cost around 3.5 times an average monthly income, as they did in 1980, you have to pay almost 6 times as much for the electric versions. In return, you usually get very sporty vehicles with high performance, but most customers are looking for cheaper vehicles. Here, too, the key lies in battery technology. This is because the battery still accounts for a large proportion of the total production costs. The cheaper the vehicles are, the higher the proportion. For a small car, this can be as little as half.

The new battery technologies promise a lower demand for expensive raw materials. And above all, fewer raw materials for the same capacity. This should reduce the price of vehicles in the long term.

Conclusion: electromobility is coming. The new battery technologies in the coming years, the expansion of the power grid and the standardization of billing for charging will create the conditions to promote customer acceptance. And the more battery electric vehicles are sold, the lower the price of a new car will be.