The increasing spread of electric cars will increase CO 2 emissions for the first time in these ten years. This is assumed by Uwe Wagner, Chief Research Officer at the automotive supplier Schaeffler.

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The CO 2 Emissions would only be shifted away from the engine to the power plants that produce the electricity for the electric cars, said Wagner at the forum for car managers and developers Powertrain of the specialist magazines ATZ and MTZ in Hanau. The emissions would increase because of the high energy consumption in the manufacture of the batteries. This disadvantage increases with the size of the batteries and the desire for greater ranges.

“Combustion engines with great optimization potential” For electric cars, it is no longer just the energy consumption for driving that is considered, but the entire energy consumption as well as the manufacture and disposal of the vehicles. The trend is towards a discussion about the CO 2 footprint of every product. “Then the battery will come into the focus of the discussion,” said Wagner. The EU target, the CO 2 emissions of the vehicles by 37, a 5 percent reduction can be achieved with plug-in hybrids and with the optimization of conventional combustion engines. There is still considerable potential in this.

Jörg Rückauf, Head of Production Development Filtration and Engine Peripherals at the automotive supplier Mahle, explained , an electric car in the middle class would hit with a lifetime performance of 150. kilometers with the current energy mix only then less CO 2 as a plug-in hybrid when the battery is below 200 offers a range of kilometers. Otherwise, the energy load from the manufacture of the battery alone is so great that there is no longer any CO 2 advantage over the entire service life of the electric car. “The sensible battery size for an electric car is a range of 100 to 150 Kilometers “, explained return.

Electric cars in Germany (70 Pictures) Volkswagen has been delivering the ID.3 since September 2020 first electric car of its major offensive in the e-sector.

(Image: heise Autos) The dispute over the environmental compatibility of electric cars is getting new food. In August of this year, the TU Eindhoven criticized some studies because, among other things, they transfer the greenhouse gas emissions during the production of the battery