“Back for the future”

Carmakers’ hesitation to push electric mobility is simply an act of self-preservation, writes Grischa Brower-Rabinowitsch in Handelsblatt. “That’s because the e-car is the first step into a new mobility world, where the automobile will reach a new technical dimension, but lose its significance at the same time […] with the e-car and the next phase, the self-driving vehicle, the demand for cars will decrease significantly.” To sell conventional cars, carmakers appeal to emotions and driving experience, and present the car as a status symbol, but all these factors might become irrelevant in the future, writes Brower-Rabinowitsch. “Even within the industry, there are many managers who expect we will need fewer carmakers in the longer term than we have today.” To secure their own survival, carmakers will have to become mobility service providers, and be ready to make their conventional business models superfluous, writes Brower-Rabinowitsch.

Read the article in German (behind paywall) here.

For background, read the CLEW article VW, Daimler take key step for e-mobility at Paris Car Show, as well as the factsheets Dieselgate forces VW to embrace green mobility and Reluctant Daimler plans “radical” push into new mobility world.

Please note: The Clean Energy Wire will investigate the prospects of German carmakers in a green mobility future in a dossier to be published in the coming days.