Berlin, November 10, 2017
Continental’s CEO Dr Elmar Degenhart called for an open discussion about the technology required to reduce road-traffic CO2 emissions stating that electromobility is only part of the solution and to mitigate climate change effectively there is a need for a combination of electric drive systems consisting of clean diesel and gasoline engines, climate-neutral synthetic fuels and fuel cells. He also said that governments banning internal combustion technology is not the right way to go, particularly because the acceptance of new technologies among consumers cannot be enforced through political means. The ideas were discussed at the ‘Automobilwoche Kongress’ in Berlin.
When it comes to electricity generation he added, “The contribution of electric mobility to climate mitigation is highly dependent on the way the electricity is generated and the carbon footprint. In most markets, the electric drive already has a slight advantage over the internal combustion engine in terms of CO2. However, the share of electric vehicles in the global fleet is increasing relatively slowly, they will therefore only have an effect on CO2 emissions in the long term.”
At the same time, Degenhart also highlighted how important it is for the industry and governments to work together: “Technology regulations are counterproductive. It is more the job of the industry to invest in the technologies that enable us to comply with emission regulations. It therefore makes more sense for governments to promote research and development of the necessary innovations and set out a reliable long-term framework for doing so.”
Degenhart sees the technological and commercial competitiveness of the battery cells as the challenge that has to be faced if millions of electric vehicles are to be launched quickly. For example, if electric cars needed to make up around 70 per cent of all the cars and LCVs of up to six tonnes produced in 2050 to have a meaningful effect on climate-change mitigation, this would highlight the extremely high amount of investment needed. To create the required amount of battery capacity, it would be necessary to have around 165 battery factories, each with an annual production of 40 gigawatt hours. Based on today’s prices, this would require an investment of around €500 billion.
The production, charging and recycling of the battery systems needed for this would require the generation of around 2,500 terawatt hours of additional energy. This would equate to around a tenth of today’s global energy demand, which could be achieved with future electricity generation processes, dependent on increases in efficiency. The same goes for the demand for raw materials – particularly lithium and cobalt, of which in theory there are sufficient amounts available. At the same time, Degenhart pointed out the issues of cobalt reserves, some of which are located in politically unstable regions.
Degenhart sees his company as being ideally positioned for the future of drive systems saying that Continental is tackling the challenge of the change in drive technologies for vehicles, focusing on the grwoing demand for highly efficient, low-emission technologies for internal combustion engines as well as on electrified and all-electric drive systems.