Electric mobility – the mobility transition

We are at the beginning of a mobility transition. The mobility of the future is autonomous, connected and electric. Vehicles will drive themselves and communicate with one another and with other transport systems. In the short to medium term, future vehicles — cars, trucks, trains, ships, even aircraft — will run on electric drivetrains.

The electric drivetrain has considerable environmental advantages over a conventional combustion engine. An electric drive produces no local emissions such as nitrogen oxides or carbon dioxide. Running on renewable electricity, EVs can generally drive emission-free. Electric drivetrains are also markedly quieter, which will noticeably reduce traffic noise in urban areas.

Just as important as the environmental advantages are the technical and economic ones. The efficiency of an electric vehicle — the share of the energy put in that actually reaches the road — is significantly higher than that of a combustion engine. For comparable performance, the drive energy is used far more efficiently. The drivetrain has fewer parts, which reduces cost, and the electric motor responds directly thanks to its optimal torque characteristics, accelerating considerably faster.

EV development has progressed to the point where these vehicles are suited to everyday use. Range — for many years the most-discussed topic in electric mobility — is today between 200 and 600 km, which is sufficient for 90% of all users.

The cost of EVs has fallen sharply, mainly through lower battery prices alongside rising capacity and power, and through efficient automated series production. Prices now sit roughly a third above a comparable combustion vehicle. Total cost of ownership — the combined cost of purchasing and running a vehicle across its service life — is in many cases already lower for EVs than for a conventional vehicle.

Given these advantages, ever-tighter environmental requirements and levies on mobility, and strong public funding, Germany will see a steep, exponential market ramp-up in electric vehicles over the coming years. Studies expect 15 million electric vehicles on German roads as early as 2030 — almost a third of all vehicles registered that year.

Electric mobility is the future. A future that has already begun. Be part of it — get in touch.