Was that the signal so many had waited for? On Nov. 29, 2016, BMW, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen announced the establishment of a joint venture in the electric transportation sector. They explained in a memorandum of understanding that they would join forces and equally share responsibilities for advocating the deployment of a “high-powered DC charging network for battery-electric vehicles covering long-distance travel routes in Europe.”
As predicted several times before, #dieselgate is the driver of upcoming changes at German carmaker Volkswagen. In March 2016, it was said that the Wolfsburg-based corporation would concentrate all fuel cell activities at its Audi subsidiary. This will necessitate a move of most of the fuel cell research, which has so far been conducted in the German city of Salzgitter. Stefan Knirsch, board member and head of development at Audi, told the magazine Automobilwoche: “This January, the task of corporate research on fuel cell engines was given to Audi.” And VW’s board of directors had supported the concentration of activities.
When the World of Energy Solutions took place in Stuttgart from Oct. 12 to 14, 2015, the emission scandal surrounding Volkswagen was still a fresh memory. The #dieselgate was the topic of many conversations and even an issue in a lot of the presentations held at the trade show. During his opening speech, Franz Untersteller, Baden-Wurttemberg‘s Minister of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector, was confident