Boehlerit Magazin 2016-EN

Renaissance of the E-mobiliy? The first speed records were set by electric cars. An electric car designed by Gustave Trouvé made its maiden trip as many as five years before Carl Benz first presented his three-wheeled car with combustion engine in Mannheim in 1886. After decades of hibernation, e-vehicles have made an impressive return to the stage. The first speed records were set by electric cars. The cigar- shaped “La Jamais Contente” came close to 106 km/h in a race near Paris in April 1899. From 1905, the “Elektrische Viktoria” made by Siemens was used to chauffeur hotel guests around Berlin in style. Its range at that time was already 80 km. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, people marvelled at the Lohner-Porsche with its electrically driven front wheels. The car was to be followed by an all-wheel model and a hy- brid version with petrol engine some years later. Only with the emerging petrol boom of the twenties and thirties was the system issue decided in favour of the combustion engine. According to official statistics, 4,692,178 passenger cars are registered in Austria as of the end of the third quarter of 2014, with petrol and diesel engines accounting for the major part of drive systems. Among the other systems, only the hybrid drives of petrol and diesel engines – which are mainly used in taxis – are somewhat noticeable with 11,641 units, while precisely 3,038 purely electric vehicles were cruising our roads as of 30 September 2014. At the end of 2013 their number was 2,070 and one year before that 1,389, which means that the number of electric cars more than doubled in this period. Measured in absolute figures, all seems to be in fine order for the classic automotive industry. Vehicles using alternative fuels, or models produced by companies other than the very big players are still not even in the per thousand range of the industry. But the market can change instantly. Former industry giants such as Kodak or Nokia can tell you a thing or two about that. In the 1990s, Kodak was one of the five most valuable brands in the world, yet only a few years later it had to file bankruptcy. As late as 1999 Kodak still assumed that not more than five (!) percent of consumers would be using digital photography by 2009. 022 BOEHLERIT MAGAZINE

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