Sustainability
Electromobility: A savior or hype?
03.09.2020
Electric cars have major environmental advantages, which is why they are the talk of the town. But is all that glitters gold? What are the prospects for these technologies? And what benefits and disadvantages do they bring?
Guess what proportion of Switzerland’s CO is accounted for by traffic2-Emission? 40%. It is therefore only logical that the climate protection debate should also include mobility: From 2020, Switzerland and the EU will be subject to a stricter climate target of no more than 95 grams of CO per kilometre2 be emitted – a big difference to today, when 35 grams more are allowed. It is thus high time to act and look for innovative solutions. Electromobility seems to be a promising path here.
Older than petrol cars
Today, electromobility is celebrated as an innovative idea. Their roots go back a long way: as early as the 1830s, electric vehicles were being designed across Europe and America – tricycles, carriages, rail vehicles and, by the end of the century, cars. English naturalist Michael Faraday lay the groundwork for such developments, discovering that electromagnetism could create a continuous rotation. E-mobility is therefore older than the combustion engine.
From a surplus of raw materials to environmental concerns
The heyday of electromobility came to an end when American engineer Charles F. Kettering invented the electric starter for combustion engines in 1911. Petrol cars also had a greater range and oil was cheaper and abundant. Owing to the commencement of assembly-line production of fossil-fuelled cars, the production of e-cars came to a complete standstill in the 1920s. It was not until the oil crisis of the 1990s and the steady increase in environmental awareness that electromobility came back on the scene. However, the key to the current far-reaching upturn in the automotive industry is not likely to be the sustainability factor, but the monetary one: Will new cars produce more than the aforementioned 95 grams of CO in the future2 per kilometre are subject to penalties. For the next year alone, the industry association auto-schweiz is expecting fines of up to CHF 300 million.
A growing market
Almost all well-known manufacturers have now announced that they will focus more heavily on electric or hybrid cars. There are currently some 1.3 million electric cars driving along the world’s roads. The largest and fastest-growing market is China, which is not only producing but also selling the most electric cars. Norway is also at the forefront: Seven out of ten new registrations in the first half of 2019 were electric vehicles or hybrids, primarily due to tax benefits. From 2025, the Nordic countries even want to ban new petrol and diesel cars altogether. Other significant markets for electromobility are the US, Germany and France. Switzerland is lagging behind such figures: Although almost 6,000 e-vehicles were registered in the first half of the year (much more than in previous years), the overall market share thus amounts to just 3.8%.
«The fear of too little reach is unfounded.»Andrea Vezzini, Professor of Industrial Electronics at the Bern University of Applied Sciences
A multitude of advantages
In addition to zero carbon emissions, electromobility has many other positive aspects. Firstly, it reduces odour and noise emissions, which promotes quality of life, especially in cities. Secondly, electricity is quite a bit cheaper than petrol or diesel. When driving downhill, the recuperation can even generate new energy. And thirdly, the engines hardly require any maintenance because they do not have wearing parts such as toothed or V-belts.
What does “sustainable” mean?
It is, however, worth taking a second, vigilant look at some of these parameters. For example, emission-free running does not mean that the car is actually sustainable. This largely depends on the way the electricity used to manufacture and charge the car is produced (e.g. coal or hydropower). In terms of battery disposal, however, technological progress is progressing rapidly, as electroresearcher Andrea Vezzini from the Bern University of Applied Sciences confirms: “92% of batteries can be recycled nowadays. The technology is there. But no one is building a recycling plant because all the batteries are still in the cars.” What is more critical are the raw materials such as copper, nickel, aluminium, cobalt or manganese that are often mined unsustainably under questionable conditions. It is up to the manufacturers to make improvements in this respect.
The issue of range
In their day-to-day lives, the Swiss are often still worried about electromobility: The most common reservations relate to the range of vehicles and the insufficiently developed network of charging stations. Of course, no one wants to be stranded in no man’s land with an empty battery. However, this fear is unfounded: According to manufacturers, the new models come up trumps with ranges of up to 600 kilometers. “In reality, you can deduct a fifth from this value depending on driving behaviour and the road layout,” says Head of the Fleet at Mobility, Viktor Wyler. This means that reach is no longer an issue. “Especially not in Switzerland, where distances of several hundred kilometres are rarely covered,” says Wyler, knowingly. Our country still has a lot of work to do in terms of charging infrastructure. But there is good news here too, as electrical expert Vezzini reveals: The federal government wants to set up fast charging stations along rest areas on a large scale. “These will be built in two years and are able to give vehicles energy for around 100 to 150 kilometres in 20 minutes.”