Growing industry Billion dollar business with environmental protection

Status: 23.06.2021 10:45 a.m.

Environmental protection is increasingly becoming an economic factor, especially in manufacturing. According to the Federal Statistical Office, sales are increasing and hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created in Germany. Environmental and climate protection are increasingly proving to be a lucrative business for industry and service providers. As the Federal Statistical Office announced, the industry achieved sales of 73.6 billion euros in 2019, 3.1 percent more than in the previous year.

Three quarters of this was achieved in the manufacturing sector, first and foremost in mechanical engineering (22.1 billion euros), followed by electrical equipment (6.5 billion euros) and the manufacture of cars, trucks and buses – and parts for them (5.8 billion euros) Euro).

The construction and maintenance of apparatus for air pollution control has grown particularly strongly. Here sales climbed by more than a third to 10.5 billion euros. These were mainly products for exhaust gas and exhaust air treatment, such as catalytic converters. In the area of ​​electromobility (limited to cars, trucks and buses), sales of 2.5 billion euros were reported in 2019, 24 percent more than a year earlier.

Over 300,000 employees

Energy-saving drive and control technology, the construction of onshore wind turbines, the thermal insulation of buildings, and the renovation and construction of sewer systems also ensured business worth billions.

The growing importance of environmental protection for the German economy is also leading to the creation of new jobs, so-called “green jobs”. The number of employees who contributed goods or services to the industry was 305,000 in 2019. Compared to the previous year, the number rose by almost 16,000. More than two thirds of the employees in the sector were employed in manufacturing companies

Sports car manufacturer What Porsche is planning for the electric future

Status: 06/22/2021 9:24 a.m.

As a rule, Porsche tests new technology first on the race track – including a new high-tech battery. Because there are no suitable batteries on the world market, Porsche will produce them in-house in the future.

From Tim Diekmann, SWR

If you sit in the new Porsche Taycan, you don’t have to do without the usual sound. Although the first fully electric Porsche should glide almost silently across the street, it sounds either like a bubbling sports car or – when accelerating – like an intergalactic rocket. Porsche calls this “Electric Sport Sound” – because the Swabian car manufacturer does not want to deliver its newest vehicle completely without sports car noises. The luxury sports car, which Porsche sold 20,000 times worldwide last year, is only supposed to be the beginning of an electromobility initiative.

High-tech battery made in Germany

In just two years, every third Porsche should be equipped with an electric motor – as a hybrid or fully electric. For this, Porsche needs lots of powerful batteries. But they are hard to find on the world market, says Porsche boss Oliver Blume: “We need high-performance cells for our electric sports cars. But we can’t find them anywhere at the moment. That’s why we develop and build these cells ourselves.” The first battery cells are expected to roll off the assembly line from 2024, initially for around 1,000 vehicles per year. “The focus will initially be on small series for racing and high-performance vehicles. In the future, however, this is not just about racing cars,” explains Blume at the official presentation at the Porsche Development Center in Weissach. In the first step, innovative technologies are usually only developed for a limited high-tech application, “but once the innovations have proven themselves there, they will gradually establish themselves across the board. That must be our goal. At Porsche, that’s what we call it Principle: from motorsport to series production. ”

Range model Tesla

For battery cell production, the Stuttgart-based company is working with the German company Customcells, which it claims to be a world leader in the development of lithium-ion battery cells. The joint venture operates under the name Cellforce Group.

According to automotive expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch-Gladbach, it is logical that, after Volkswagen, Porsche is now also relying on the production of its own battery cells: “The battery cell accounts for the largest part of the car’s added value, and it has a lot of innovation potential . Automobile manufacturers who develop competencies in this area have a long-term competitive advantage. ” According to Bratzel, Porsche should not chase after the competition for the US electric car manufacturer Tesla, but rather must lead the way as an innovator.

New battery technology promises many advantages

According to the head of electrochemical energy technologies at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), Markus Hölzle, the batteries as we know them today should still develop their potential: “Everything can, must and will be improved Above all, however, the cost of battery cells must be reduced further. And the energy density must also increase so that the batteries become more compact. ” The ability to recharge quickly is also important. To do this, Porsche wants to work with so-called silicon anodes, which “has two major advantages over the previously used carbon: it improves the ability to charge quickly and increases the energy content,” explains Hölzle. But now Porsche must first show that they can do it.

But while Porsche is still planning the future, competitor Tesla is already building the world’s largest battery cell factory in Grünheide near Berlin and promises a production capacity of 100 gigawatt hours per year, a thousand times as much as Porsche’s subsidiary Cellforce Group.

Climate neutral by 2030?

The focus on e-mobility and the setting of climate targets is an important step for the brand, emphasizes car expert Bratzel. “Porsche is a brand that nobody really needs, but many people want to have it because of its positive image. And I believe that it is becoming more and more important for the Porsche clientele in particular to say: ‘I have a sports car and still drive in a climate-friendly way . ‘”

Climate protection has long since become an image factor. This also shows the ambitious goal of the Swabian car manufacturer to be “balance sheet CO2-neutral” by 2030 and thus earlier than Daimler (planned for 2039) or Volkswagen (planned for 2050).

Environmentalists are skeptical

The environmental protection organization Greenpeace is skeptical whether Porsche will really be climate-neutral by 2030. “Unfortunately, ‘climate-neutral’ on the balance sheet ‘usually means that in the end generously cheap CO2 credits are bought from offsetting projects instead of consistently reducing CO2,” says Benjamin Gehrs from Greenpeace. With its large SUVs, Porsche consumes an unnecessarily large amount of resources. Porsche must also get out of the business with climate-damaging diesels and gasoline engines faster and more consistently than before.

So will the Porsche 911 possibly soon hit the streets as an electric car? Unlikely. In addition to battery cell technology, Porsche is also working on the development of synthetic fuels, so-called eFuels, which are to be produced using renewable electricity. Artificial sports car sound, as in the Taycan, is then unnecessary. At Porsche, the first step is to advance research in the field of battery cell development. The federal and state governments support the project with 60 million euros

More and more electric cars Boom for Battery manufacturer

Status: 06/17/2021 10:13 a.m.

The growing number of e-cars on the streets is causing the battery market to grow strongly. One EU country in particular can catch up significantly with its Asian competition.

From Oliver Feldforth, MR

For years it was talked about, now the boom in electric mobility really seems to be there. Electric cars are very popular at a leading Frankfurt dealership. One seller says that what is delivered to him can also be easily sold.

The electric cars have contributed to the fact that the corona pandemic could not harm the battery market in Germany. Last year there was an increase of 35 percent. “Above all, the volume of the market for lithium-ion batteries has increased enormously,” says Christian Eckert from the Central Association of Electrical Engineering and Electronics Industry ZVEI. Overall, this segment grew by 63 percent. And that is mainly due to electromobility.

The recycling rate should increase

A battery is only as green as the material and the electricity used to make it. Even the electric car is only as green as the electricity with which it is charged. When it comes to battery recycling, German industry is on the right track, said Christian Rosenkranz, Chairman of the ZVEI Batteries Association. The recycling rate for classic batteries is 80 to 90 percent, while it looks worse for lithium-ion batteries, which are in increasing demand. The industry wants to achieve a rate of 65 percent in four years.

Environmentalists see a need for action. “It is not only in Germany that we have to set high social and ecological standards for the production of batteries,” says Benjamin Stephan from Greenpeace. “The car manufacturers are responsible for this, but politics must set clear rules for all companies.”

Poland leads the way in Europe

Germany imports batteries. The manufacturers from Europe overtook the Asian competition for the first time last year. In Europe, Poland is the leading producer, in Asia it is China, according to Christian Eckert from the ZVEI.

And electromobility will continue to grow. Volkswagen sees it that way too. The car manufacturer plans to set up six battery cell plants of its own in the next few years. According to Ralf Brandstätter, head of the Volkswagen brand, by 2030 at least 70 percent of all new Volkswagens in Europe should be electric vehicles, in North America and China more than half.

Solid-state batteries as the technology of the future

The decision as to which drive for cars comes after the classic combustion engine seems to have been decided for the time being. “The battery-electric drive is the most efficient and significantly more economical than fuel cells and combustion engines,” said Benjamin Stephan from Greenpeace. “With the same amount of renewable electricity, a car with a fuel cell can only go half as far as a battery-electric one.”

In the case of car batteries, solid-state batteries are to replace lithium-ion technology. It does not require cobalt, which under questionable circumstances is mainly extracted in Africa. For environmentalists, electromobility is only part of the necessary turnaround in traffic. And so Greenpeace is also calling for a change in mobility towards an intelligent transport system in which bicycles, buses and trains play a bigger role

Raw material for batteries Is nickel still in short supply?

Status: 15.06.2021 3:55 p.m.

First a lack of chips, then a lack of wood, soon a lack of nickel? E-mobility also devours resources. Due to the increasing demand for batteries, the demand for nickel is likely to increase strongly. The sufficient supply of the metal nickel could become critical in the next few years. The German Raw Materials Agency (DERA) warns of this in a current analysis. The background to this is the increasing demand generated by the turnaround towards electromobility. “We assume that, depending on the scenario, global nickel demand will increase from around 2.4 million tons today to around 3.4 million tons in 2025,” explains Dr. Michael Szurlies, nickel expert at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR). “Overall, the nickel market is facing a turning point in terms of demand in the coming years, which will lead to a significant shift in market shares within the areas of application.” As a special department of the BGR, DERA advises the federal government, business and NGOs on raw material issues, for example on security of supply and the ecological consequences.

02/18/2021

Nickel is used for batteries

So far, nickel has mainly been used in steel production: around 85 percent is currently used in the manufacture of stainless steel and alloys, as DERA writes. The use in batteries currently accounts for around five percent. That will change in the near future. Because nickel is now a “key raw material” for the transport and energy transition, according to the study. Due to the strong demand generated by the global expansion of electromobility, the experts expect that by 2025, depending on the scenario, the share could be up to 21 percent. This would make batteries the second largest area of ​​application.

07.03.2021

Most of the nickel comes from Indonesia

Indonesia is the world’s largest supplier of nickel. The experts write that the vast majority of the new global production and refining capacities for the metal are expected there by 2025. This leads to a significant increase in the market concentration for nickel – and also has the consequence that the power of the main suppliers increases. Whether prices can also be expected to rise in the future due to rising demand depends on whether supply also increases. It is not excluded. In order to reduce the dependency on international suppliers, consideration is being given to extracting important raw materials – including nickel – in Europe. Experts emphasize that a European supply chain could make economic sense. In January, Peter Buchholz, head of DERA, said it would be good if Europe also built up its own capacities. The projects just have to be cost-competitive.

background 10/27/2010

Recycling is becoming more important

The automotive industry in particular, but also machine builders with a focus on solar or wind power, steel manufacturers or the IT and medical technology industries are dependent on a continuous supply of basic materials such as nickel. This also applies to so-called rare earths – elements such as cobalt or lithium, which is usually the central raw material for batteries in pure electric drives. The authors of the study also have the issue of sustainability in mind: “In view of the goal of reducing emissions of climate-damaging carbon dioxide through electromobility, in future, apart from questions of availability, the most environmentally friendly and sustainable extraction and processing of nickel will be more important.” One has to ask how more nickel and nickel compounds can be recovered at the end of the life cycle of the products and how less environmentally harmful and at the same time more socially fair promotion can be achieved. On the one hand, there are technological developments towards greater efficiency and fewer emissions. On the other hand, the increasing mining in tropical regions is a problem due to the large amount of land required.

By Christoph Arnowski, BR A high proportion of electricity from coal, insufficient range, too few charging points – all this makes many people doubt the electric car. Also the Ingolstadt engineer Roland Gumpert. That is why he has developed a completely new electric drive concept that works without a charging cable and still enables a long range – and with which the car can be refueled as easily and quickly as a petrol or diesel. The technical core is a methanol fuel cell. If these are fed with climate-neutral methanol, their cars will run without greenhouse gas emissions, says Gumpert: “We can install this concept in any car, in a Polo with 50 hp or in a long-haul truck with 40 tons,” says the engineer. “We are vastly superior to normal battery cars.”

“Father” of the Audi Quattro

Gumpert isn’t just anyone in the automotive industry. For decades he worked successfully for Audi – most recently as Marketing Director for the joint venture between VW and Audi in China. At the beginning of the 1980s, as head of Audi Sport, he and his rally drivers brought four world championship titles to Ingolstadt. The basis was the Quattro drive, which was considered a technical sensation in 1980. For the first time, an automobile manufacturer built a permanent four-wheel drive into its street car. Gumpert is considered one of the fathers of the Quattro drive.

Billions invested in electromobility

Now, at the age of 76, Gumpert wants to show it to the entire industry again – with his own small company. He wants to prove that his car with a methanol fuel cell is better than any electric car with a large battery and charging cable. But politics and industry are so far not interested in Gumpert’s idea. Is it because you have agreed on battery-electric e-mobility and have invested billions in developing it? “Germany can only achieve the EU’s 2030 climate target with a high proportion of electric cars,” the Association of the Automotive Industry VDA shares BR policy magazine controversial on request with. All other options are “not available in ‘mass production’ until then”. Audi expresses itself similarly. The Ingolstadt-based carmaker did not even respond to Gumpert’s invitation to take a look at his concept. Compared to the BR explains a company spokesman: “Electromobility is by far the most efficient way to decarbonise and achieve CO2 fleet targets. Audi is therefore concentrating on battery-electric mobility.”

This is how the methanol fuel cell works With the drive concept, cars do not fill up with hydrogen, which is technically complex and expensive. Instead, a mixture of methanol and water is put into the tank. This is as uncomplicated and quick as possible with gasoline or diesel. This mixture is only heated and broken down into its components in the car itself. The oxygen and carbon dioxide escape into the air. Because climate-neutral methanol is used, there are no additional greenhouse gas emissions. The fuel cell converts the hydrogen from the methanol into electricity, which runs the electric motor.

For the first time, engineer Roland Gumpert implemented his drive concept in the Nathalie sports car – a two-seater coupé with 550 hp and a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour. The fuel cell produces enough electricity in the car to be able to travel at speeds of up to 130 kilometers per hour. If you want to drive faster, the battery supplies the electric motor with the additional energy required. If the speed drops below 130 km / h, the fuel cell not only supplies the driving current, but also recharges the battery at the same time. In this phase, the car drive needs less electricity than the fuel cell produces. If the vehicle comes to a complete stop, all the electricity from the methanol fuel cell flows into the battery.

If the battery is empty, the car can continue to drive, but at a maximum of 130 km / h – and as long as there is methanol in the tank. Gumpert specifies the range of the car as around 800 kilometers.

“The train left”

The Ulm management consultant Arnold Lamm also believes that the battery-electric car will prevail. “The train has left, you can’t stop it,” says Lamm. As an engineer, he worked for Daimler for more than twenty years. At the end of the 1990s, the Stuttgart-based car manufacturer opted for a drive with a methanol fuel cell, but the company did not achieve the breakthrough it had hoped for at the time. Lamm’s conclusion today: “Technically it works, but then as now I consider this system to be far too complex, too expensive and too time-consuming for a mass market.” Engineer Gumpert disagrees. His drive works: in the prototype of the “Nathalie” he built, a 400,000 euro super sports car that he plans to produce in a small series next year. And the same in an E-Smart that he has converted. His system is competitive: “We know for sure that we can get there with mass-produced products in terms of cost. Our system, including the battery, is ultimately no more expensive than a battery-powered car,” says Gumpert.

Advantages especially on long journeys?

Also from the point of view of the car expert Lamm, the technology “in this configuration is definitely worthwhile to be further promoted”. However, he sees opportunities above all in trucks that have to cover long distances. Here it could have advantages over pure hydrogen vehicles and electric trucks. So should the federal government be interested in e-cars with methanol fuel cells? At least Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer knows the concept. Gumpert was already in Berlin two years ago with his “Nathalie”. Scheuer seemed pleased. But does a 400,000 euro sports car really help in the fight against climate change? The minister sent engineer Gumpert back to Ingolstadt with homework: he was supposed to prove that his drive concept also worked in a small car.

Political tailwind for converted Smart?

In fact, Gumpert converted an E-Smart on behalf of the ministry. Since then, the car has driven 15,000 kilometers – without any problems, without a charging cable, just refueled with green methanol. However, all attempts to inform Scheuer about this failed for months. Emails from the company with the request to present the Smart in Berlin initially went unanswered. Upon request from Controversial said the ministry that methanol fuel cell systems were “not a mass-market solution”. In the meantime, the Federal Ministry of Transport has also contacted Gumpert. “We’re finally out of the drawer,” says the engineer. “We have been forgotten and apologized and will soon give us an appointment for a video conference.” So is the small company from Ingolstadt still getting some political tailwind? Engineer Gumpert continues to hope so. So far he has been pretty much alone with his vision of an electric car with a methanol fuel cell that can be refueled very easily and that continues to drive even with an empty battery.

From Till Bücker, tagesschau.de Combating climate change is hardly conceivable without electromobility. In order to remain competitive, the German producers are catching up after initial hesitation – especially Volkswagen. “Let me make one thing clear right away: The battery has won the race,” said VW boss Herbert Diess at a recent event. The battery won. It is the “only remaining option to get traffic CO2-free.” The Wolfsburg-based group is relying on the transformation like hardly any other car manufacturer. The company plans to invest around 35 billion euros in the coming years. Around 70 all-electric models are planned by 2030. 60 percent of all new VW cars should then run on batteries.

Electromobility in Germany is making headway

German drivers also seem to be slowly getting involved with e-mobility – among other things, thanks to purchase premiums from the federal government and many new models. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), more than 13 percent of new registrations in 2020 were purely electric cars or plug-in hybrids that are equipped with a combustion engine in addition to the battery. For comparison: in 2016 it was less than one percent. The rise continues this year as well. In March alone, every tenth new car was battery-electric. The market share of cars with alternative drives (battery, hybrid or hydrogen) is currently 37.6 percent and thus higher than ever, as the KBA announced last week. The most popular brand in the first quarter of 2021 is VW. According to its own information, the group currently has a market share in e-mobility of just over 34 percent in this country.

Tesla is the “benchmark”

Despite its top position in its home market, another group is still number one among electric cars worldwide: Tesla. The market share of the California-based automaker, which announced its quarterly figures on Monday evening, fell in Germany from 30 percent in 2019 to nine percent most recently. From a global perspective, however, boss Elon Musk’s company is still ahead. The company sold last year almost half a million e-cars . That was 36 percent more than in the previous year. In the first quarter of 2021, Tesla delivered 184,800 vehicles – a new record. Above all in what is probably the most important market for electric cars in China, the US group has escaped the Germans. Every third Tesla is sold in the People’s Republic. Even on American roads, there is no getting around the electric pioneer when it comes to e-cars with a market share of 80 percent, as the data from the US new registrations show. “Tesla is an important benchmark for us,” Diess recently admitted. The VW boss is an avowed fan of Musk, and he regularly describes his company as the measure of all things in the automotive world. According to the economic sociologist Andreas Boes, who investigated the effects of the Tesla shock on German industry on behalf of IG Metall, Tesla is the harbinger of a new mode of production. The e-car manufacturer gave the decisive impetus for the change in the automotive industry. “The company from California puts its finger in the wound,” said Boes at the Hanover fair.

Tesla with competitive advantages

But what are Tesla’s strengths? What makes Musk & Co. a pioneer? “Tesla has actually set benchmarks in certain areas,” emphasized Stefan Bratzel, Director of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) at the Bergisch Gladbach University of Applied Sciences, in an interview with tagesschau.de . Without Tesla, electromobility would not have existed at this speed.

Stefan Bratzel is Director of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) at the Bergisch Gladbach University of Applied Sciences. Image: picture alliance / dpa Competitive advantages are, for example, the competence in battery technology, the control of their superchargers – i.e. fast charging stations – and their reliability. The German carmakers reacted too late on these points, and there are deficits, especially in the area of ​​charging infrastructure. VW only presented its plan in March to build six so-called gigafactories for the production of battery cells and to set up 18,000 public fast charging points. Another great advantage of Tesla is the special vehicle architecture with its own operating systems and chips. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is buying the software. “That puts Tesla in a position to be better than the German competitors,” said the auto expert. Tesla also has a lead in the production area. You manage to pull up plants within a short time and the degree of automation is also higher.

VW can reach the masses

However, when it comes to innovation in the battery-electric field, VW is catching up a lot and is on Tesla’s heels. In addition, the German group also has pluses. With the modular e-drive kit (MEB) he developed a functional system for the production of e-cars, with which, according to Bratzel, a large number of models can be set up: “Volkswagen is a specialist in rolling out such a strategy for different brands, Segments and regions. ” While Tesla offers a rather narrow model range and has long relied on premium products with the Model S and Model X, the VW Group also includes the brands Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat in addition to its own models such as the ID. “VW sometimes takes a little longer to implement an innovation, but can then quickly bring it to the masses via the series,” says Bratzel. The Wolfsburg-based company intends to sell more than a million e-cars annually worldwide by 2025 – including medium and compact classes. Another trump card: VW already has a global production network. Tesla is also trying to build up that – among other things through the new plant in Grünheide – but is still far behind, according to the expert. Advantages of western manufacturers are also the quality of the body, the chassis and the workmanship of the interior.

Will VW become the world market leader?

So could the German carmaker pose a serious threat to Tesla? “If things go well, the VW Group will become world market leader in electric cars in 2022”, Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Duisburg CAR Institute recently claimed in an interview with “DER AKTIONÄR”. Expert Bratzel also agrees with this: “The large number of models in particular can mean that Volkswagen has a great chance of becoming the world’s largest manufacturer in 2022 or 2023 even with pure electromobility,” he predicts tagesschau.de . For a long time, Tesla led the field by a large margin. But now there are competitors who could be dangerous for the Californians. It now remains to be seen which new innovations Tesla will bring out in order to maintain the lead: “The race is getting a lot closer – both in terms of innovations and sales figures.”