Spiegel reports here that Germany’s sole plant for producing electric car batteries, owned by Daimler, is shutting down thus casting doubt Germany will reach its ambitious target of putting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2020.
According to Wikipedia, as of September 2014 a total of 21,256 plug-in electric vehicles were registered in Germany. Most of the plug-in stock in Germany has been registered by corporate customers.
Spiegel reports:
The only German plant that produces battery cells for electric cars will be closed. The company Li-Tec in the German state of Saxony will produce batteries only for one more year. Daimler Manager Harald Kroger told Spiegel that the current production numbers make it far too expensive to produce the batteries.”
Daimler was banking on higher production numbers, which are necessary for producing economically. But the quantities never materialized. Kroger told Spiegel that the company realized that “an automaker does not have to produce the batteries itself.”
Another setback
Spiegel calls the move by Daimler “another setback for electro-mobility in Germany“, and represents the latest obstacle in preventing Germany from reaching its target of cutting CO2 emissions 40% by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
One reason Germany is not rushing into electro-mobility, behind the scenes, is because the country’s power grid is woefully unprepared to handle the extra burden posed by 1 million electric cars because it is crippled by the unsteady feed-in of wind and solar power. Already there are profound fears that Germany’s power grid will be overloaded and collapse should a harsh winter materialize.
A look at the last 5 days of electric power production in Germany shows that wind and sun cannot deliver, especially three days ago on November 13.
Oh BTW, the conflict between SPD’s Hendricks’ statement that the 40% CO2 emissions reduction must be done; and SPD’s Gabriel’s statement that coal power plants should not be switched off now leads Gabriel to the bizarre statement that “we will manage the 40% CO2 reduction without an exit from coal burning.”
http://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/wirtschaftsticker/gabriel-klimaziel-auch-ohne-kohleausstieg-erreichbar_id_4278448.html
This statement is in my opinion best explained by assuming he suffers from a rapidly progressing decay of brain function.
“…rapidly progressing decay of brain function”
No. It’s the way number are used in politics. Unlike Engineering & the hard sciences (the MINT variety, not Climate Astrology), where they have exact values & their use entails consequences, in poltics they are completely arbitrary doodles that can be changed & exchanged ad libitum. If you spend your life telling your audience that if you increase wages by 3% & raise taxes from 40% to 60% at the same time, they will end up with more money in their pockets, innumeracy saves you the trouble of lying.
“innumeracy saves you the trouble of lying.”
Yes. Deteriorating brain function, that’s what I said.
They have caught the “stupid virus”
http://www.newsweek.com/american-researchers-discover-stupidity-virus-283319
Broccoli is a kind of algae right?
But maybe not…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/fayeflam/2014/11/11/why-you-neednt-worry-about-catching-the-dreaded-stupidity-virus/
And the winner is…China!
“an automaker does have to produce the batteries itself.”
That doesn’t sound right. I think there should be a “not” in that line.
There are many components of an auto that are not made by the company that assembles it. Those round black things that go between the auto and the road, for instance.
As written, it also implies Daimler will stop making electric autos.
Do they even have a purely electric one? I only know of hybrids – for which NiMH batteries are a cheap and good solution.
Thanks!
Much of Daimler Benz’s products are not made in house. Rather outsourched to OEM manufacturers.
I know plenty of suppliers that deliver components and systems to Daimler Benz, so a fair amount gets produced out of house.
And where do these idiots think the power comes from to charge the electric car batteries every day? Thermal power stations, mainly. Which fortunately continue to produce plenty of wonderful CO2!
So Daimler is a typical capitalist company that puts profit before the health of the planet?
This is totally unacceptable and the Global Warming Soviet will put a stop to this short-term thinking. We can expect that the minute they take over and a diktaat will compel Daimler to do the right thing, produce batteries at whatever costs in order to save Mother Gaia.
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