Germany's National Platform for Electric Mobility

cars21.com - On 3 May 2010, Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin with representatives of the German car manufacturing industry. The outcome of this industry summit is an alliance between federal government and some of the largest car makers in the country in a National Platform for Electric Mobility.

The platform uniting 147 experts from public and private institutes, representatives of the automotive and energy sector, serves to realise the German Development Plan for Electro-mobility which had been adopted in 2009. The economy stimulus package adopted in the same year, reserves 500 million euro for alternative mobility concepts, distributing the funds between electric car battery and fuel cell technology.

The new platform clearly focuses on the former and organises the participants in seven task forces to work on projects treating different aspects of EV technology, such as alternative drivetrains and battery technology, and a nationwide EV ecosystem, including the charging infrastructure. Detailed proposals for their realisation are expected by the end of this year already.

Secondly, specific projects are subsidised quite generously. The joint venture between Volkswagen and Varta Microbattery for a research project on lithium-ion batteries, for example, receives 12 million euro of federal support. And it is not the first project being subsidised in this way. In 2009, the German government had awarded 21 million euro to a consortium of 18 industrial and research partners (including BASF, Volkswagen, the Frauenhofer Institute, the University of Berlin...) equally focusing on battery development.

In total, the German government has invested already more than 100 million euro out of the 500 million euro earmarked for the electric mobility package, giving development funding to around 190 electric mobility projects in 8 model regions.


...But money is not all that German car manufacturers want from their government. A broad network of charging stations and standardisation of the same, rank highest amongst their expectations. Education of qualified personnel following close behind.