Carmakers face e-mobility upheaval / Calls for offshore wind expansion
Reuters
European auto industry executives meeting at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt face a threat to jobs and profits from pledges by governments – including China’s – to ban the combustion engine, Reuters reports. Plans for e-cars from Daimler, Volkswagen and France’s PSA Group could put German jobs at risk, and give policymakers pause for thought, the article says. Mercedes’ electric model will initially be just half as profitable as conventional alternatives, forcing it to cut costs by outsourcing component manufacturing, the article says. Similarly, Volkswagen is seeking new global suppliers for “50 billion euros of electric car parts, including batteries, which are not yet manufactured competitively in Europe”, Reuters reports.
Read the article in English here.
For background, read the CLEW dossiers Frankfurt car show puts spotlight on German carmakers’ troubles and BMW, Daimler, and VW vow to fight in green transport revolution.
Volkswagen / Reuters
Volkswagen plans to invest more than 20 billion euros in zero-emission vehicles by 2030, Reuters reports. The carmaker said on Monday it would roll out 80 new electric cars by 2025, up from a previous goal of 30, with plans to offer electric versions of all of its 300 group models by 2030. Before the diesel emissions scandal, VW was slow to embrace electric cars and self-driving technology, Reuters says. "We have got the message and we will deliver,” VW CEO Matthias Müller said in a press release ahead of the IAA in Frankfurt.
Read the article in English here.
Read the press release in English here.
For background, read the CLEW dossiers Frankfurt car show puts spotlight on German carmakers’ troubles and BMW, Daimler, and VW vow to fight in green transport revolution.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
While Daimler touts its shift to electric mobility at the IAA motor show in Frankfurt, the carmaker has made it clear to investors that the move will be a costly one, Susanne Preuss reports for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Daimler’s profits are under pressure, leading to a drop in share price. As part of the group’s electric vehicle strategy, it will only offer an electric version of its Smart model in Europe and North America as of 2020. It will offer electric or hybrid versions of all of its more than 50 models by 2022. Daimler aims to make a quarter of its revenue from electric cars by 2025. CEO Dieter Zetsche said by then, battery prices will have fallen to the point where manufacturing electric cars will cost the same as those with combustible engines.
Read the article in German here.
For background, read the CLEW dossiers Frankfurt car show puts spotlight on German carmakers’ troubles and BMW, Daimler, and VW vow to fight in green transport revolution.
Windpower Offshore
A group of trade unionists, regional economics and energy ministers and industry leaders has called for Germany to increase its offshore capacity to at least 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, and at least 30 GW by 2035, Craig Richard reports for Windpower Offshore. The government’s current target, set in 2014, is just 15 GW by 2030. In its “Cuxhaven Appeal 2.0” the group also calls for increased research and development funding, grid development, better-maintained and expanded ports to help the country boost economic development and meet its climate goals.
The group includes ministers from Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg, and Bremen, the mayors of 12 cities and towns in northern Germany, the president of industry body Offshore-Windenergie, and trade union IG Metall Kuste’s district manager Mainhard Geiken.
Read the article in English here.
Read the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation press release in German here.
Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur)
The reliability of Germany’s power supply remained high in 2016, according to Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). The total number of interruptions to supply last year was slightly lower, at 177,751, than in 2015. However, there was a slight increase in the average disruption time per connected end-user, which rose to 12.8 minutes, compared to 12.7 minutes in 2015. Bundesnetzagentur President Jochen Homann said this was due to a slight increase in supply interruptions at the medium voltage level. Homann added that increasingly decentralised power generation due to the energy transition had had no negative impact.
Read the press release in German here.
Germany’s Green Party is calling for power, heat and transport to be integrated as part of its “green future plan” published on Monday. “For the successful energy transition, we will not only switch our electricity supply to 100-percent renewable, but also modernise the heat and transport sectors in a climate-friendly and ecologically sound manner,” the party said. The Greens’ plan would link the three currently separate fields, with “modern, intelligent energy infrastructure (sector coupling)”.
The Greens say they want to support innovative entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists in the increasingly competitive global renewable technologies field. “By the year 2025, the market volume for environmentally friendly technologies is expected to increase to 740 billion euro in Germany, according to the Federal Environment Ministry. If you are ahead in international competition here, you protect the climate, and ensure the success of companies and future-oriented jobs.”
Read the announcement in German here.
For background, read the CLEW dossier Energy and climate policy in Germany's election year
Deutscher Bundestag
The German government is working at the EU level to ensure testing methods that measure the real driving emissions of motor vehicles are also developed for CO2, according to a press release from the German parliament. Replying to an enquiry by the Left Party, the government said real driving emissions tests were not currently part of European type-approval regulations. "The determination of CO2 emissions was carried out according to the legal regulations,” the government said in response to Left Party accusations that emissions tests had been designed to present automakers “in a good light”.
Read the press release in German here.
Read the Federal Government reply in its entirety here.
For background, read the CLEW news article "Win for car industry" - First reactions to German diesel summit
