The European Union steps on the accelerator of the electric car

The European Union accelerates toward a future of CO2-free cars powered by renewable energy, with a firm technological commitment to the electric motor that implies a profound transformation still sown with uncertainty.

The objective is clear: a decarbonised EU that limits the advance of climate change while reducing its imports of hydrocarbons, generates its own renewable energy and gains competitiveness thanks to the development of cutting-edge technology.

This virtuous circle, which would materialize around the middle of the century, implies a profound transformation of the road transport sector, which is responsible for 20% of total CO2 emissions and 7% of the EU’s GDP.

The European Commission wants combustion engines to reduce their emissions by 55% in 2030 and to stop being sold in 2035, a schedule that must be negotiated with the European Chamber and the Member States.

Brussels approved last Thursday an aid scheme of 3,000 million euros for the strategic project for the recovery and economic transformation (PERTE) of the electric and connected car in Spain and the new German Government, launched on Wednesday, aspires to put 15 million euros. electric cars on their roads in 2030.

“The change towards electric mobility is inevitable” but “the speed of the transformation and its consequences may be counterproductive for the electric vehicle,” the director of Mobility and Sustainable Transport of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) tells Efe , Petr Dolejsi.

job

The electric car will create opportunities, but it will also shake a labor market of 12.6 million jobs in the EU. The European Association of Automobile Suppliers estimates that only in the area of ​​components the transformation threatens 500,000 jobs.

The electric motor has fewer parts than the combustion engine and they are also simpler, which suggests that its development will lead to a net loss of jobs and, although it will also generate opportunities, “it will create enormous alterations in regions specialized in certain types of technologies.”

“I am not referring to highly qualified jobs, which can be moved, but to production and assembly lines”, says Dolejsi, who warns that it can be difficult to manage “a very radical change” in “very short terms”.

Load and network

Electricity generation will not be a problem, as European demand would only increase by 10% if all cars were electric. Neither will investments to improve the network, which the sector places between 25,000 and 35,000 million euros in this decade.

“The main challenge is that we have to be able to do many things at the same time” because to the electrification of mobility will be added that of “the air conditioning of buildings, a transformation of the electrical system as such and of other parts of society”, comments to Efe Kristian Ruby, secretary general of the European employers’ association of electricity companies, Eurelectric.

Instead, Ruby is concerned about the shortage of charging points. He asks to accelerate their deployment and distribute them across geography, as they are currently concentrated in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and France, and also plan “smart” systems so that cars are not supplied at peak consumption, but mainly at night.

Technology

Another problem with the electric vehicle is that it is notably more expensive than the combustion vehicle and offers less autonomy.

“You have to find something that is very similar to conventional vehicles in terms of costs. Technology is the answer for this, although we are not there yet ”, explains to Efe the vice president of Industrial Development of Huawei, Jan Ellsberger, a Chinese telephone company increasingly focused on the electric and connected car.

The automotive sector is counting on that technological leap that a priori would make electric cars cheaper and expand their range of travel, especially to mid-range ones, will be noticeable in a period of between two and four years.

This development involves using new materials, better integrating all electronic components into the vehicle’s architecture or using more advanced semiconductors.

Semiconductors and batteries

The chip shortage affects the motor industry, and even more so to electric mobility. There are experts who believe that it will be corrected in one or two years, others that it will last longer and the European Commission has proposed to develop a semiconductor industry in the EU that will account for 20% of world production in 2030.

It is a strategy similar to the one designed in Brussels for batteries, where the EU also wants to create a community sector that integrates the entire value chain, with the added problem that raw materials such as lithium, graphite or cobalt are They import from Chile, Bolivia, China or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that the reserves are scarce and their recycling complex.

In parallel, solid batteries, calcium cells, graphene cells and also the hydrogen engine are being investigated, which promises more autonomy and fast charging and is announced as a possible alternative for the transition of trucks, which represent 73% of land traffic of EU goods.