In Germany, E-Mobility Startups Are Filling The Gaps
Sensing an opportunity, young entrepreneurial startups in Germany are looking to fill the charging void. Leading the effort in places like, “Berlin, where start-up Ubitricity is developing Mobile Charging and slow-charging EV points that can be incorporated in the urban infrastructure, into lamp posts for example. Elsewhere, a joint-venture created by BMW, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen Group, called IONITY is developing 400 fast-charging stations across Europe.”
Ubitricity is comparing “the evolution of electric vehicles with emerging markets, where land-line telephones have been leapfrogged by mobile phones,” according to founder Knut Hechtfischer. And IONITY claims that “slow charging is a thing of the past. This new generation only needs 15 minutes for a charge … the time it takes to relax and have a cappuccino,” says company CEO Michael Hajesch.
According to the Financial Times, “Germany’s old automotive business model, which lasted for well over a century, of selling combustion-engine cars to private customers, is drawing to a close. … A ground-breaking German court ruling in February stated that cities can ban the most polluting diesel from city centers proving that the only way for electric vehicles is forward.”
Furthermore, the country is setting an ambitious goal, “to put six million electrically powered vehicles on German roads by 2030… [and] over the last year, the share of diesel vehicles in German new car sales has dropped sharply, from about half to 35%. Plug-in electric car sales more than doubled in 2017, with the momentum continuing this year, Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority reported.”
It's a wake-up call though for the automotive industry in that change is accelerating rapidly. If your business is built up around fossil fuel vehicles, that business model will need to adapt. The tipping point will come when EVs are cheaper than fossil fuel cars to buy. Many predict that the tipping point will be in the 2020's – the question is just: The early 2020's or the latter half of the 2020's?
See https://cleantechnica.com/2018/09/22/in-germany-e-mobility-startups-are-filling-the-gaps/
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In Germany, E-Mobility Startups Are Filling The Gaps | CleanTechnica Last month, another remarkable milestone came to fruition for the Silicon Valley Automaker. Eric Loveday reports (via InsideEVs), “It’s hard to believe it, but indeed it’s true. In the month of August, the Tesla Model 3 alone outsold all passenger cars from BMW.” Meanwhile, in Germany, legacy automakers are struggling to develop a cohesive strategy for their fledgling electric vehicle programs |