Europe's e-car crisis: wrong decisions threaten the future of mobility!

Europe's e-car crisis: wrong decisions threaten the future of mobility!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - In Europe there are alarming developments in the field of electric vehicles. The market share of the electric cars has been drastically dropped of 1-2 percent of the approximately 260 million vehicles, which corresponds to around 2.6 million electric cars. Hermann Fichtinger, the deputy chairman of the federal division trade, warns that retrofitting the remaining 257 million combustion engines requires immense capital and a variety of batteries. According to conservative estimates, the energy required for the production of these batteries would cost around 1,300 billion euros without taking into account other necessary expenses such as cabling. "We have neither the money nor the amount of electricity in Europe to realize this green brain clamping," says Fichtinger, who also points out that electric vehicles are not more environmentally friendly than modern combustion engines, since about 60 percent of the stream used from fossil fuels and the battery creation has additional ecological effects that are often ignored as ots.at reported.

difficult conditions for European battery production

In the middle of these challenges, European battery is faced with a dilemma. Instead of investing locally, many companies have long moved into batteries from China, which is becoming increasingly problematic due to geopolitical tensions, for example through the Ukraine War. According to the Fraunhofer Institute for System and Innovation Research, the number of new battery projects has increased in Europe, but progress is slow. In 2023, the actually produced capacity in the entire EU was only 186 GWh, while forecasts for 2030 provide for a capacity of over 1,300 GWh. Over 68 percent of the planned cell factories are at risk, which could heavily burden the European automotive industry. Countries such as Germany and Hungary in particular would be affected if battery companies change their plans or even hire, which would further exacerbate imports, reported Industriemagazin.at .

The situation forces the strategies to check the European automotive industry. While regulating the supply chains in the long term, there are currently massive challenges to reduce the dependence on Asian suppliers. The Swedish battery cell manufacturer Northvolt could play a key role, but encounters criticism due to quality defects and delays in production.