Electric mobility in 2025 - This is how we will be charging our cars in future

Mr Roemheld, when we look ahead to 2025 – what is your vision when it comes to charging?

We come from a world in which refuelling has always looked the same, namely going to the petrol station. But when it comes to driving electric, 80 percent of people currently charge their cars at home or at work. However, this requires owning your own wallbox. My vision for 2025 is that everyone will be able to drive electric, even and especially without the aforementioned personal charging point.

How so?

For one thing, we will have cars with longer ranges and greater charging capacity. And the charging infrastructure will be better developed. In up to 15 minutes, we will be able to recharge enough range to be able to drive in cities without a personal charging point and with one or two charges per week without any problems.

I strongly believe in the concept of rapid charging parks. The driver has an infrastructure that is

Martin Roemheld, Head of business development and investment management at Elli

Electric mobility is widespread in major German cities, where there are more charging stations than in small towns. What needs to happen to ensure that electric mobility and charging parks don’t just remain an urban solution?

More people have the option of setting up their own charging point in rural areas because the proportion of homeowners tends to be higher here.

As a passer-by, that isn’t much use to me unfortunately …

Exactly. The German federal government is currently working on this with the National Centre for Charging Infrastructure. The plan is to set up 1000 rapid charging hubs in Germany, funded centrally by the German federal government, specifically to close the gap in the areas where the market hasn’t taken off yet. Then, when demand is high enough, the German federal government will hand this charging infrastructure over to the private sector. In addition, we will also be setting up rapid charging points ourselves. Using IONITY, we are working on a solution for motorways: in collaboration with BP/Aral, we want to equip petrol stations with rapid chargers – and in cities as well.

Will there be charging parks in every major German city in the future?

I strongly believe in the concept of rapid charging parks. The driver has an infrastructure that is quick and easy to access, and is highly likely to have a free charging point due to the high turnover. This means no long waiting times. For cities, charging parks will take up a relatively small area of land, which is even close to zero if petrol stations are repurposed as charging parks. A strong argument in the age of large-scale land usage. Service station operators, in particular, are interested in this model, since people charging their cars stay longer, meaning they have more time to go shopping. The third aspect is the power supply. The charging parks are connected to what is known as medium voltage. This network level is above the level at which households are supplied with power. Significantly more power is available here than in the low-voltage network – and the power is cheaper, which you notice as a customer. So, the charging park model is extremely attractive from the perspective of all stakeholders.

Does the quality of the power supply also need to improve?

Electric mobility only makes sense if it is run using renewable energy. This is another reason why we need a systematic energy revolution in Germany and Europe. In the future, cars will be able to communicate when it is best to charge them, so that they can be supplied with green energy. Along the lines of: Please charge when it is windy or when the sun is shining. In doing so, the cars can already actively promote the energy revolution.

How do you think pricing levels will change?

Charging at home means your energy costs are already lower than when filling up with diesel, for example. But there is still a bit of an issue when it comes to the prices for using public charging stations. This takes us back to charging parks: With charging card subscription models, as offered by IONITY, for example, customers pay a similar price to charging at home. You can see that the system has the potential to be cheaper than combustion engines in the long term and in every situation – we’re making very good progress.

Volkswagen will start producing cars with a bidirectional charging function as of 2022. A real technological leap.

Martin Roemheld

How do things currently stand with bidirectional charging?

Volkswagen will start producing cars with a bidirectional charging function as of 2022. A real technological leap. I like to compare this to the first cameras on mobile phones. Initially, they weren’t really any better than digital cameras. But in the years that followed, more and more business models built on the principle, such as Instagram, for example. I think that bidirectional charging is similar: The car gets a new feature – it can now emit energy, provide emergency power, charge another car. My prediction is that, based on this technology, totally new business models will be developed in the next ten years, the like of which we haven’t even begun to think of at the moment.

So, from simply charging smart phones to supplying energy for a whole house?

To clarify the scale: We are currently building cars with an accumulator that can store up to 80 kilowatt hours. A six-person household uses around eight to ten kilowatt hours of energy a day, meaning that I could use the energy that the car has on board to supply my household for up to six days and still drive 100 kilometres.

Electric cars as energy service providers. At the “Power Day”, Herbert Diess talked about that, saying that this could even make the charging current free one day.

Exactly. But the whole thing can only work if a market emerges where the car can be marketed as a rolling battery. Battery storage has huge potential to advance the energy revolution, because an increasing proportion of renewable energy in the power supply requires increasing storage capacity as a buffer. And this is precisely where electric cars can provide a very valuable service – which then generates revenue for the vehicle owners.

Elli is a provider of energy and charging solutions. As part of the Volkswagen Group Elli will be the first provider on the market to offer a seamless and holistic energy and charging experience for electric car drivers and fleet managers. Elli was founded in 2018, with offices in Berlin, Wolfsburg and Munich.