German carmakers lag behind on passenger e-cars, but are cutting edge on heavy e-vehicles

German carmakers might have been late to embark on the electrification of passenger cars, but, according to a recent study by patent law office Grünecker, “are very well positioned when it comes to e-transporters and e-trucks,” Thomas Fromm writes for the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The study’s author, Jens Koch, said he was “surprised” how intensively German carmakers are working on the electric future of heavy duty vehicles. “About one third of all patents for electric utility vehicles in the past ten years come from German producers,” while many big producers from China did not register any relevant patents at all, Koch said. However, carmakers from the US and Japan currently are “much more dynamic” than their German competitors, Fromm writes.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW dossier on German carmakers and the Energiewende and the factsheet on Road freight emissions in Germany for more information.