Thaindian News

Berlin, April 21 (IANS) State-of-the-art electric cars will be in vogue by 2020 and global sales of such vehicles will amount to around 470 billion euro ($635 billion), a media report has said.
However, with the manufacture and sale of electric vehicles, there is also a need for proper universal charging systems, which can only be made when policy makers, manufacturers, researchers and consumers make concerted efforts through dialogue, Germany’s Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle was quoted as saying by Xinhua Tuesday.

The German government has planned a fund of 500 million euro ($675 million) for research and development of electric cars and charging systems, Bruederle said at the Hanover Fair, the world’s largest industrial trade fair for energy and power plant solutions.

Around one million electric cars were expected to move on German roads in 2020, he said.

“What we will do is re-invent the automobile, not only its appearance but also its driving mode and power charging system,” he said.

Around 100 exhibitors at the fair came with their innovations on electric charging systems, mobile energy storage and alternative mobility technologies, the organisers said.

An emission-free bus without a combustion motor, whose propulsion system is combined by fuel cells, batteries and ultra-capacitors, drew huge crowds at the fair.

The driving power of the bus was produced from a hydrogen-powered fuel cell which could be recharged during driving. The energy generated through driving can be transformed and stored within the battery. The bus can move at a top speed of 65 kph for a distance of 250 km with a full tank of hydrogen gas.

Meanwhile, Werner Ressing, head of the Industrial Policy Department of the Economics and Technology Ministry, said: “Electric mobility is vital to Germany’s sustainable development and renewable energy industry”.

However, experts are of the opinion that a high-capacity rechargeable battery costs about 15,000 euro ($20,250), amounting to two-thirds of the cost of the car, which will prove to be unaffordable to consumers.

Another challenge for developing electric cars is the recharging standard, including the size of plug and the strength of voltage, Ressing said.

The European Union (EU) will propose its standard for electric cars, hoping to coordinate with other countries on this critical issue in order “to make sure that electric cars can be recharged everywhere in the future”.

More than 4,800 exhibitors from 64 countries presented cutting-edge technologies on renewable energy, industrial automation and alternative mobility solutions at the fair.