Electricnick, The EV Revolution

Strange that a car manufacturer would want to spoil the dance and throw ice cube into the parade but apparently, VW thinks that all electrical vehicles aren’t feasible because of battery technology drawbacks.

Come again? Directly from DW-World: “Volkswagen’s top researcher warned Saturday, July 19 that pure electric cars would not became a major product for decades, because they continue to be thwarted by battery technology.” OK, I had to read more into that wondering what was going on there. Drawback in battery technologies are not only known but are also tackled head on with better and better results.

According to Juergen Leohold, chief research officer at VW Group, he believes the key problems were getting enough range out of batteries, the cost and lack of industrial capacity to make high-energy batteries. It seems strange anyone would say that when smaller companies are already hailing 220 miles on one charge. So what’s going on here? Juergen Leohold said Volkswagen would sell electric models soon as early as 2010 but at the same time cautioned that it would take 20 to 25 years before electric cars achieve a market share of more than 10%. It would have been nice to see how Leohold came up with these numbers. They seem to contradict almost every other car manufactures work in the field. One thing is for sure, where there is a will, there is a way. And according to the latest incentives by governments, insurances and a high price of gas per gallon, you shouldn’t underestimate man’s amazing quality to work problems out faster than originally thought of.

Here is where we think the underlying gist of the article is: “Separately, the German weekly magazine Focus reported Saturday that a key aim behind a takeover bid from German ball-bearings company Schaeffler for tire maker Continental was a plan to jointly develop electric and other energy-saving engines. Both companies make mechanical sub-systems for cars.”

It sure looks like the entire car manufacturing industry is in upheavals trying to rethink itself through this intense paradigm shift in the way we power our cars. It is going to be interesting to see who the early adopters are and those that ultimately make history.