The a
utomotive industry moving fast towards electromobility. This will
bring dramatic changes to many areas.
Based on EU legislation, the average gas emission for each vehicle manufacturer
for vehicles registered from 1/1/2021 in Europe must be 95 g CO2/km. However,
what does this mean in practice? This means that in order to classify for example a
Mercedes AMG, they should classify at first two EQC, so that the average of the three
vehicles remains below the 95 gr CO2/km.
This will evoke immediate dramatic changes to cars produced and marketed within
the EU. Already, the very small vehicles with a thermal engine are being disappeared,
as, in the average gas emission a weight/difficulty factor is also contained. Peugeot
108, Citroen C1 stopped being manufactured, Smart is now only electric, Fiat Panda
got a hybrid version and Fiat 500 becomes electric.
If we apply the fines provided for the classifications of the new cars who emit more
than 95 gr CO2/km, making business inside EU will become almost unprofitable for
car manufacturers. The only solution left, if they want to stay active, is to pass on the
cost to the buyers.
It seems that all manufacturers will pass on some of the cost of fines to consumers,
the new car will become much more expensive and only wealthy people will be able
to buy it. Trends such as car sharing in combination with autonomous driving will
become more popular for people. Nowadays, in Athens, vehicles are parked/stacked
in traffic at 90% of their time. Imagine Athens with far fewer cars, which would be
electric, autonomous, constantly in circulation and they could communicate not only
with each other (V2V) but also with the infrastructure (V2G). Is it a science fiction
script? Do you know that in Trikala, there are two autonomous electric buses, which
transfer passengers, and they do not need a driver?
According to car manufacturers who are already preparing for the new,
completely different automobility form, in a decade, about 40% of new vehicles will
plugged in. Whether we talk about hybrid or electric vehicles, manufacturers have
decided to direct many of their investments in the development of batteries and
electric engines. In almost all the countries of the Western world, the percentage of
electric cars in circulation is increasing, reaching in some of them a double-digit
market share. This trend will raise in the following years when the European capitals
and major cities adopt the EU directive and prohibit the circulation of vehicles
emitting more than 50 gr CO2/ km in their center. The European logic "polluter pays"
that is currently in force on the traffic charges of the new cars will be renamed as
"polluter circuits limitedly ".How far are we from all these in Greece? When you see a
taxi with a Euro 2 specification, purchased in 2003-2004, leaving a black smoke
behind every time the driver speeds up, it is hard to believe that this is possible in
Athens. However, this day is no more than five years away.
With the Athens’ road network designed for 1.5 million vehicles, while today
there are the twice number of cars circulating, it is crucial for our lives to take action
to reduce pollution, noise pollution and traffic. Citizens' health and the corresponding
reduction in spending combined with saving on fossil fuels is great. Imagine a 20-
year-old SUV with three differentials and permanent four-wheel drive downtown,
next to a similar state-of-the-art plug-in hybrid model, whose thermal engine does not
run in urban areas.
PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle), Mild
Hybrid Electric Vehicle or HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) pollute less or not at all,
where they circulate but they do pollute! The key question is how much they pollute
overall, in relation to vehicles using oil or gas thermal engine (ICE). A question that
takes on a completely different dimension in our country until we deregulated from
lignite. The automobility changes will be dramatic in the next few years.
Takis Pournarakis
Mechanical Engineer – Journalist – Chairman of the Organizing Committee of Motor Sports Organizations