E-mobility on the verge of a breakthrough

E-mobility on the verge of a breakthrough

“Our grid can easily cope with the additional electricity demand.”MANFRED SCHRÖDL, DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF TU WIEN FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS AND ELECTRICAL DRIVES

The exciting series of lectures on EV Safety Day in front of around 200 interested visitors was started by Andreas Lamm from the German training organizer for air conditioning technology Lammy & Partner, which cooperates with parts dealer Birner in Austria. His message to all the automotive technicians present who are worried about loss of business due to the relatively simple electric drive: "The air conditioning in a car with a combustion engine is 'nice to have'; in electric and hybrid cars it is a 'must have' product." For example, the temperature management of the Audi Q7 e-tron consists of no less than three cooling water circuits with heat exchangers that provide both the passengers and the lithium-ion battery with a permanent comfortable climate. “It's actually hardly possible for anything to break with the batteries and the electric motors of the drive train,” says Lamm, “but the air conditioning systems are highly complex systems with numerous sources of error.” This means that work and sales will continue to be ensured in the workshops in the future. According to air conditioning expert Lamm, replacing an electric compressor, for example, costs an impressive 1,800 euros. Condensers, expansion valves and evaporators can also break, not to mention the coolant circuit lines, which can leak in a variety of places.

VOLKSWAGEN RESEARCHES

In his presentation, Johann Berner, head of importer and technology training at Porsche Austria, reported, among other things, on the construction of the VW battery research center, where electricity storage systems with 100 kWh charging capacity and a modular MEB electrification kit are being worked on. In 2020, Volkswagen wants to introduce its model I.D. to be the first series vehicle to be launched on the market with a new platform and storage technology. As part of the parent company's electromobility offensive, dealer Porsche is now also training its automotive technicians in the exciting subject. So far, two so-called e-mobility technicians have been trained per car dealership, bringing the total to 580. Johann Berner leads a team of 22 trainers, including five high-voltage experts. “The electric car is on the verge of a breakthrough,” Manfred Schrödl, head of the Institute for Energy Systems and Electric Drives at the Vienna University of Technology, began his lecture. Using two slides, he clearly demonstrated that the complex structure of a hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle is clearly at a disadvantage compared to the comparatively simple and twice as efficient battery-electric drive. When asked by skeptics where the electricity for all the electric cars should come from, the scientist replies that if electric vehicles become widespread, the electricity requirement will increase by a maximum of 20 percent, which the existing power grid can easily handle. Schrödl’s conclusion: “E-mobility has long been on the path to enlightenment and profitability.”