Electric cars? They may not be the only viable solution to reducing car emissions. And so, just as it seemed that electric technology was the only way to “reclaim” the world of cars, some of the main manufacturers have returned to talking about connecting rod engines and pistons.
Like BMW: Frank Weber, the brand’s Development Director, told Auto Motor und Sport that the manufacturer “is working on a new generation of six-cylinder and eight-cylinder petrol and diesel engines”. Of course, the new engines will be even more efficient and cleaner than the current ones: “To meet the emission limits and maintain a high level of performance we are adopting a completely new approach in the creation of engines” and “reducing emissions to combat heating. global shift from both electric and thermal engines that are increasingly efficient “.
At Stellantis, however, work is being carried out on a new Euro 7 approved diesel engine: it would be a four-cylinder unit, which will probably be assembled in the Pratola Serra plant, in the province of Avellino. This propulsion unit is expected to make its debut over the next 15 months and can be installed on cars and commercial vehicles of all brands of the group.
Even the Volkswagen group breaks a lance in favor of thermal units, through the mouth of its CEO, Herbert Diess: for the number one of the German giant, in fact, imagining saying goodbye to vehicles with internal combustion engines “is simply impossible”. “The transition to electric vehicles has some constraints” and that “the plan to reach 50% EV by 2030 is extremely ambitious. In Europe, we have a market share of around 20%: in order for this share to support the 50% target for electric vehicles, we need six ‘gigafactories’. These factories should be operational by 2027 or 2028 to enable us to reach our 2030 target. It is almost impossible to do so, ”Diess said in a podcast interview with Nilay Patel, director of technology site The Verge.
“We are only 20% of the market, so six factories. Europe needs 30 of these plants. Each plant is two kilometers by one. Huge quantities of raw materials have to be moved. It will be challenging. So going from 50% to 100% will be a tremendous challenge. It is not just a question of saying ‘let’s turn off endothermic cars’. It is simply impossible ”.
This is why, for the German manager, the manufacturers who have scheduled the final farewell to endothermic are wrong: “It is a decision that a car manufacturer cannot take alone” because “the launch of electric vehicles will depend on legislation and the increase in renewable energies, and this will come from state policies and a global policy, not from the individual decisions of car manufacturers ”. Ultimately, therefore, “it makes no sense to electrify the world of mobility if we don’t first make the primary sector CO2 neutral. The world is not the same. In France they have seven grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour because it’s all nuclear. In Poland they have 1,000 grams because it is all coal based. The same happens in South Africa. Electric launches must be staggered ”.