Transformation to e-mobility: “Freedom of choice is fundamental”

Interview with André Kaufung, managing director di CharIN on the trasnformation to e-mobility.

Which is the role of CharIN to promote the electric mobility into European Union? 

We see us as the industrial consolidated voice and view to consult the European union in the relevant working groups and subgroups and have a cross-industry consolidated position. We are the only assoziation, having the combination of ecosystem like Energie and Car in the folucs, on a global scale.

How fast is changed the electric mobility world in the last few years? Which are the strateic priorities to convince people using e-cars and to help industries into the decarbonization process?

As electromobility is getting a broader acceptance, prices are coming down and challenges, e. g. in charging times and availability of charging infrastructure, is getting positive. The transmission of the entire mobility sector, including long-haul trucks, buses, heavy trucks, aeroplanes, marine ferries, etc., will help to accelerate the decolonisation process. I think the strategic priorities to convince people is the freedom of choice. There are more and more options available – from low price to high price, the cutting-edge of available infrastructure in the next one to three years, which helps to avoid the fear of range as well as the increased power. Furthermore, full interoperability across Europe and other areas is an absolutely must have.

In Italy the percentage of electric vehicle in circulation is still low. What do you think could be the stimulus to increment this potential?

I think there are different options from governments to support, but I guess that a country like Italy will also follow or join the trend mentioned in the previous answer. Lower taxes for EV , serios investments in infratsucture as an example.

Hydrogen promises to be the clean energy vector that will help to hit the carbon neutrality by 2050. Do you thing this technology can undermine the potential of electric or could be an ally into the european decarbonization process? 

As CharIN, we promote battery electric vehicles. It’s not my role to comment on other technologies. Personally, I think there could well be applications for hydrogen, but for passenger car applications battery electric vehicles is the industry driven choice.

Which will be your next steps? About projects, reports, commercial partnerships, etc ?

As CharIN, our next big step is to check if we can expand our scope more away from the interface and the communication into the grid. The vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-home and the vehicle-to-X applications will have future benefits, as well as the look into the non-passenger vehicle markets, such as heavy trucks for the megawatt charging system coming up next year, as well as marine and airplane applications. We see a lot of interest from investors and companies for data and security topics. A wider scope to include the battery industry players might also follow.