The VDA and Federation of German Industry (BDI) Hold an Event at the Frankfurt International Motor Show (IAA) about Sustainable Mobility in Conurbations
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany--The speakers at an IAA symposium on “sustainable mobility in conurbations” were Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Peter Keitel, President of the Federation of German Industry (BDI), and Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chief Executive of Daimler AG. The event was stage jointly by the German Automobile Industry Association (VDA) and the BDI as part of the BDI’s initiative „Business working to protect the climate“. In his welcome to the participants, VDA President Matthias Wissmann stressed that the 63rd IAA for private cars had got off to a good start despite a difficult economic environment. He described the flow of visitors on the first weekend of the IAA as “impressive”: “Our expectations have been more than fulfilled. So we enter into the second week of the show with confidence”
Keitel emphasized that the achievements of German industry in climate protection were there to see: “When it comes to highly innovative and cost-effective solutions for climate protection, German industry is already leading the world. In the global ‚green’ markets German companies have a disproportionately high share of over 16 per cent over all – and the trend is rising.” The BDI supports the target set by the Council of the European Union, of a 20 per cent reduction in CO2 by 2020 – “admittedly starting from a baseline of 1990”. The BDI could only accept a raising of this target to 30 per cent, he said, if it is not a burden imposed unilaterally on German business: “We need to have a level playing field.”
The effective and ambitious emerging nations must carry some responsibility. It is there that the real future potential for energy-saving lies. In the technology transfer that is necessary in order to achieve this, the protection of our intellectual property must of course be guaranteed and the sharing of resources must be governed by a fair partnership. Keitel also called on the USA to make further contributions to climate protection.
Keitel stressed that “the German automobile industry is one of our country’s core industrial sectors, one of our showcase industries. I know of no other country that would not be proud of the car industry that we have.” He dismissed critics of the sector: “It is sheer headline-grabbing to claim that German industry has failed to recognize the signs of the times.” The opposite is true, he said, and the IAA is the best example of this: „Here the car manufacturers and their suppliers – in the most severe crisis that the auto industry has experienced since 1945 – are presenting a dazzling display of innovations and ideas.” He pointed out that that modern engines today consume on average two litres less per 100 km than in 1990, and that the world’s most economical 4-seater (3.3 llitres per100 km or 87 g. per km of CO2 ) can be seen at the IAA and it is a German make.
Keitel went on: „Thanks to innovative technologies it has already been possible to make significant reductions in pollutant emissions. And by 2020 they will have dropped substantially further: in the case of volatile hydrocarbons by 94 per cent, particulates by 86 per cent, carbon monoxide by 90 per cent and nitric oxides by 73 per cent compared with 1990.” The President of the BDI emphasized that “highly efficient, innovative engine technologies and alternative fuels will play a central role in our sustainable mobility. In the short term this means reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gases, by improving existing engine technologies and adding bio-fuels to the mix.” Both with petrol and with ‘clean diesel’ there was still the potential to make consumption 25 to 30 per cent more economical over the next few years, he said. In the medium- to long term, electric power-units giving emission-free local driving were a very promising option, especially in conurbations. Industry as a whole was well equipped to provide for electric motoring – from the auto industry through energy supply to chemicals, information- and communications technology, as well as the electrical engineering industry.
Since, in the future, there will be a wide range of different engine technologies, the BDI is calling for research across all technologies: “The IAA makes it more than clear that the government can confidently leave it to industry to determine the content of this research”, stressed Keitel, pointing out the CO2 reductions achieved in other forms of transport. “All this shows that German industry takes its responsibility for environmental and climatic protection very seriously. We are working successfully today on solutions for tomorrow. Even in this time of crisis, we will meet the great challenges of sustainable economic management. Society can count on this, and so can government”, said Keitel.
The BDI President underlined the fact that „we will not create mobility without intelligent traffic systems. Here it is particularly important to link up all modes of transport in an intelligent way – especially in urban areas.” Information must be available in “real time”. To achieve this it is necessary to have access to traffic data from vehicles and infrastructures; this would then be passed on and processed in a network of linked traffic-management centers. This information could then be fed back to the user as a “customised information package”: “In this field, innovations are being worked on in the creative hothouses of our industries, and will be available in the future. Governments must rapidly create a reliable frame of reference and sufficient freedom of action for these systems to be introduced – that is their job”, said the BDI President.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chief Executive of Daimler AG, emphasized that “in the run-up to the IAA you could sometimes hear people say that the automobile industry had nothing to celebrate this year. If we look around at this fair, we have every reason to reject that suggestion: at this IAA no less than 100 new models are having their worldwide launch. And over half of them have been developed by German engineers.” The German auto industry is making good progress with CO2 reduction, Zetsche said. “The entire transport sector knows its responsibility in this area. From the auto industry through air and rail transport, to shipping, the same thing applies: in the graphs on CO2 emission a broad arrow will be pointing downward in the coming years. We are making our contribution – individually and through intelligent link-ups between all forms of transport.” German companies as a whole have set themselves this task, and this is underlined once again by its initiatives.
Zetsche pointed out that playing a pioneering role in climate protection was in fact good for German business. “In the short term there are CO2 -neutral technologies, though they come at a cost. However, taking the long view, the rule is: if you protect the climate, you will also protect your competitiveness. In the long term we will only stay ‘in the black’ by delivering ‘green’ products and services – and scarcely anywhere is this development currently intensifying as much as in the automobile industry.“
Looked at globally, demand is shifting from the stagnating trio of mature markets towards the booming markets of the emerging nations; there is a „widening of the spread of customer expectations”, which makes for a ”differentiation” of cars. The aging of the population in the industrial countries had to be taken into account, as did the trend towards urbanisation. To this had to be added “automobile emancipation” – the proportion of female car-buyers was growing.
The debate on climate protection had now overlaid these long-term trends, Zetsche emphasized. “After a century of unchallenged dominance of the internal combustion engine a ‘war of succession’ had begun, in which so far no single ‘successor to the throne’ can be predicted – particularly as the old ‘Regent’ will keep his sceptre firmly in his hand for the foreseeable future. True, in the long term, hydrogen and electric power will replace diesel and petrol [gasoline] as energy-sources. However, unlike a change of government, this changeover will not take place on a specific election day. The fact that the technological diversity, which results from this, nevertheless has to be mastered simultaneously, is forcing us into a difficult balancing-act: in order to be able to one day to replace the internal combustion engine, we have to sell it successfully today. Only then can we shoulder the immense investment in alternative power. But at the same time we have to invest in the further development of the existing technologies, which in the long term we intend to render superfluous. Both the directives from the European Union and the existing obstacles to electric-powered driving leave us no other choice. To meet both demands together requires a massive effort.“
Precisely because the triumphant progress of the automobile had not yet ended, Zetsche said, the industry must alter course as quickly as possible. Looked at globally, the stock of cars is likely at least to double by 2050 – and such a trend was only defensible ecologically, if at the same time each individual vehicle produces lower emissions.
On the road towards sustainable mobility the German auto industry was pursuing three parallel lines of attack – “economy, added improvements and replacement” Zetsche stressed. “Firstly we must cut down CO2 emissions by as much as possible, as rapidly as possible – and here the internal combustion engine is our highest trump. It is universally available here and now – and that is why improving it is crucial to how much CO2 emission we can avoid in the short term.” Our success to date was encouraging, he said. “One hundred modern vehicles cause less carbon emission on average than a single car from the 1970s”, Zetsche explained.
The German auto industry, in particular, had massively reduced both consumption and emission. “In the premium class, especially, we have reduced fuel consumption more than proportionately. Today you can drive an E-class car [???] with a consumption of 5.3 litres of diesel and a CO2 -value of less than 140 grammes – and that is still not the end of the story. Here it is not only what happens inside the cylinder that determines how much less CO2 we emit in total. What is also important is how much emission we can avoid through other types of improvement to the vehicle, how intelligently we link up the individual modes of transport and how smoothly the traffic can be made to flow.”
Then comes the supplementing of conventional engines by means of electrical components. Admittedly, a hybrid drive can only be as good as its internal combustion engine. But if the total package is right, the advance is considerable, Zetsche said, referring to the first “3-litre S-class”, which has been launched at the IAA: “And I mean the fuel consumption, not the cubic capacity. The CO2 value of this “Plug-in hybrid” is precisely 74 grammes. With consumption-figures as low as that, even big cars have a future”.
Advances in battery technology were now the decisive factor. In London, for the past two years, Daimler has been running a pilot trial of electric vehicles; in Berlin a similar project is starting this year. It is true that, for the foreseeable future, longer distances will only be achieved in battery-powered vehicles equipped with a “range extender” – in other words with a supplementary combustion engine. This gives a range of 600 kilometers, 100 of which are without emissions. However, for people who want to cover long distances completely emission-free, the only option is the electric car with a fuel-cell motor. “Even today journeys of over 400 km can be down with this. Re-fuelling takes exactly the same time as at a ‘normal’ fuel pump. So, all in all, electric driving is no longer a Utopian dream”, Zetsche said. Admittedly, it will be several years before electro-mobility becomes a „universal reality”. For that it would be necessary to build up an effective infrastructure as well as battery that performs well and is attractively priced.
The battle against climate-change, said Zetsche, was a trial of strength. “But it also offers an opportunity: ‘new solutions’ have always been the strong point of German industry – and today these are more in demand than ever. If government and business work together, both the environment and the German economy will benefit in the end”.
The speeches were followed by a panel discussion with Günter Damme, of Group Research, Volkswagen AG; Dr. Klaus Scheurer, Board member for transport and the environment at BMW AG; Friedrich Smaxwil, President of the Rail Industry Association in Germany (VDB); Bernd Lange, Member of the European Parliament, and Folkert Kiepe, Delegate for Urban Development and Transport at the German Assembly of City Authorities.
The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.