Electric cars could be introduced on a large scale now (Germany)
July 18, 2011 by Frederike Demmers
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Electric cars could be introduced onto German urban roads immediately on a large scale. This is the interim result of the pilot project ColognE-mobil after the first year of testing and operating electric vehicles under real world conditions.
ColognE-mobil is a research project of the motor company Ford, the electricity provider RheinEnergie, the University Duisburg-Essen and the City of Cologne, with the aim to advance urban mobility in large cities. Professor Ferdinand Dudenhöfer who coordinates a team of 50 scientist and researchers said: "Tomorrow morning, citizens in Cologne could start driving private electric vehicles...There is no need for a network of charging stations in the city, since the pilot project has shown that most of the people recharge their electric cars at their domestic power sockets at home”.
ColognE-mobil is funded through the Federal Ministry of Transport Building and Urban Development and received 7.5 Million Euro for the 15 months testing phase. In this pilot, 10 Ford Transit BEV and 10 Transit Connect Electric were tested, and at the end of the year a further 5 Ford Focus Electric vehicles will complement the fleet.
Some critics of the study have noted that existing electric car users were not involved in the study and thus their experiences were not taken into account.