Upcoming battery improvements could signal a leap forward for e-cars in Germany – report

Electric car batteries could become twice as efficient as they currently are by 2025, researcher Martin Winter of the University of Münster says in an article written by Jürgen Pander on Spiegel Online. This means that e-cars could soon have a standard range of up to 600 kilometres, rendering void a key argument of e-car critics, Pander writes. Research on new battery types like sodium-oxygen models, rather than the current standard lithium-ion model, shows that the range can be expanded even further in the near future, although development here still has to overcome several hurdles associated with the batteries’ weight and lifespan, he says. More thoroughly researched battery technology, such as solid state models that are already tested by carmakers VW or Toyota, could also bring “a substantial improvement to the current state of technology,” Winter says. According to Pander, the competing technologies make it difficult for German carmakers to decide on investments in in-house battery development, meaning that dependence on Asian battery cell manufacturers is likely to persist for some time to come.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers for more information.