“Germany has lost the race for range”

In the race for developing the best storage technology for electric vehicles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s strategy is “not trying to overtake the mighty Asian competitors” in conventional lithium ion-battery technology “but forging ahead with a completely new generation of batteries”, business weekly WirtschaftsWoche reports in a long article. “This plan will fail,” the article says. Car manufacturers “are avoiding the financial risk” of supporting innovation, researcher Mareike Wolter of Fraunhofer IKTS argues. Being an industry “spoilt by success”, German carmakers “are fumbling around with small-scale lab models and lighthouse-projects” while others have invested billions and have become “uncatchable” in this key technology, the article says.

Read the article in German here.

Read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers for background.