- Why is Volkswagen relying so much on battery electric?
Obernolte: “Because it is the most efficient use of incoming energy. The battery and electric motors convert between 70 and 80% of the input energy to drive. A fuel cell car or combustion engine running on sustainably generated fuels, known as e-fuels, is unable to do this. The efficiency rate of these is between 25 and 30% or less.
- What exactly does this mean? How does the ID.4 GTX compare to a matching combustion engine model?
Obernolte: “In an NEDC cycle, the ID.4 GTX uses 16.3 kWh over 100 km. The corresponding petrol combustion engine consumes around 7 liters per 100 km. It is equivalent to about 60 kWh of energy, because its efficiency rate is more than three times lower than that of the electric car. And it’s not much better with a diesel engine, we’re talking about 50 kWh per 100km there“.
“The emissions in producing the batteries? Compensated “
- Another strong point of the electric drive is the small footprint.
Bekemeier: “Exactly. The combustion engine and its auxiliary components have been eliminated. Which allowed us to design a short front end and a correspondingly large interior. The ID.4 GTX is a compact and manageable SUV from the outside, but it has plenty of room for the family and everything you need to take with you inside“.
- But the production of electric cars has inevitable negative effects on the climate, particularly with regard to batteries.
Bekemeier: “Electric cars rolling off the Zwickau production line do not generate large amounts of CO emissions 2. This includes factory production and the entire supply chain. That is the production of battery cells at the supplier, which uses renewable energy. But when we deliver the car to our customers, it is climate neutral, because we offset unavoidable emissions with climate protection projects. And when the battery runs out, we can continue to use it as a fixed accumulator until we recycle it at the end of its useful life. Our goal is to recycle over 90% of precious raw materials such as lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt as well as aluminum, copper and plastic“.
“More renewables to lower the break-even point”
- Between production and recycling there is the useful life. And an electric car has zero emissions globally, when it is constantly charged with renewable energy.
“Right. When we compare the ID.4 to a conventional car, it definitely has a clear positive carbon footprint. When used with the EU average electric mix, its footprint is smaller than that of a comparable combustion engine after driving significantly less than 100,000km. And when loaded with renewable energy, this tipping point is reached a third sooner. That’s why our brand is driving the expansion of renewable energy and making large-scale investments in wind and solar farms in Europe. We want to ensure that all the power our electric fleet needs on the road comes from green energy“.
IN OUR OPINION. Are SUVs ecological? No, the numbers say that with the same battery from 77 kWh, an ID.3 declares an autonomy of 544 km, while the ID.4 it stops a 520. The difference is there, and it is not in favor of the SUV. Not only that: for these high-wheeled vehicles, customers tend to prefer more capable batteries, and we know that cell production is the most energy-intensive phase. It is no coincidence that in the ID.3 the most requested version is the one with a 58 kWh, while in the ID.4 the most popular is the 77 kWh.
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