autoregion international - Edition 1/2020

16 Combustion versus electric drive Remarks on the automotive engine of the future By Armin Gehl, Managing Director of autoregion e.V., Saarbrücken One thing is beyondquestion - carrying on as before in the transportmarket is no alternative. That something has to change is undisputed. Vehicle exhaust gases account for around 30 percent of all CO 2 emissions in the EU. 72 percent of this is attributable to car and truck traffic. Despite ever more efficient engines, there has been no real improvement. At the same time, the cars have become heavier and the traffic volume has increased significantly. The technological increase in efficiency fizzles in the truest sense of the word. And the EU has set itself the goal of reducing transport emissions by 60 percent compared to the levels in 1990. There is disagreement about the right way out of this dilemma - often between poli- ticians and experts. Unfortunately, the discussion is not always scientifically ob- jective. Self-proclaimed conservationists are pushing politics and local authorities with court decisions on driving bans. Economic corporate interests or political sensitivities too often misrepresent prag- matic and targeted solutions. The result is that customers are irritated and react with reluctance to buy. Example “Diesel”: The share of diesel vehi- cles in new registrations fell froma good 50 percent in 2015 to only about 30 percent in October 2019. Unfortunately, the allegation that the car industry has largely caused the image loss of the diesel engine itself by the diesel scandal, is not entirely dismissed. However, experts agree that the diesel engine is an indispensable element on the way to achieving the climate goals. Because of the more efficient combustion due to the autoignition system, diesel has an advantage of about 15 percent in com- parison with the gasoline engine, despite a higher proportion of carbon dioxide in CO2 emissions. Another advantage of the diesel is the significantly reduced partic- ulate emissions of modern Euro 6 diesel engines. Recent research has shown that the exhaust gases from a modern diesel engine are cleaner than the absorbed air for combustion. Undeniable, however, is the fact that nitrogen oxide pollution is rising as a result of improved combustion levels. Euro-6 engines counteract this phenomenon with the active DeNOx ex- haust aftertreatment. If one follows the signals from politics, the electric drive seems to be the royal road to achieving the climate goals. Meanwhile all well-known manufacturers carry e-mod- els in their product portfolio or develop entire product ranges with electrically driven vehicles. Looking at the registra- tion statistics, the pure electric drive seems to be gradually gaining ground. Since 2015, the number of new registra- tions of electric vehicles has almost tri- pled, reaching a new record in 2019 with more than 53,000 units. Thus, the market share of electric vehicles is 2.6 percent in Germany, but still a long way behind the Netherlands with 9 percent or China with 4.7 percent market share. In absolute terms, Norway still holds the absolute top spot with a market share of 61 percent. The example of Norway, however, shows the questionability of such comparisons. The high market share in Norway is attrib- utable to extensive state support mea- sures for e-mobility, which were mainly financed by the sale of oil and gas, which then quenched the thirst of classic inter- Image: © autoregion e.V. Armin Gehl, Managing Director of autoregion e.V. Saarbrücken S H A R E