German manufacturers seen catching up on e-mobility in 2019
Handelsblatt / Clean Energy Wire
German carmakers are expected to catch up in the international e-mobility market in 2019, auto expert Stefan Bratzel of the Center of Automotive Management told Stefan Menzel for an article in Handelsblatt. “In particular, the VW Group could significantly increase its innovative strength due to many models in the purely electric vehicle segment,” said Bratzel.
German manufacturers, marred by the diesel crisis and faced with new competitors like Tesla and Google, have been slow in the global race to master the future of mobility. Less than 100,000 purely electric or plug-in hybrid passenger cars were registered in Germany at the beginning of 2018.
The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) said it had received 91,498 applications by the end of 2018 for the e-car buyer’s premium since it was launched in 2016 to quickly increase the number on German roads. More than half of the applications came from companies, while 39,675 came from private buyers.
However, the situation in Germany’s streets will begin to change in 2019, as “finally several second-generation electric cars” by German manufacturers are going to be available, said Felix Kuhnert, Global Automotive Leader at consultancy PwC. But regarding digitalisation, “German manufacturers are years behind”, an unnamed Volkswagen manager told Handelsblatt.
