At first glance, Wolfgang Lohbeck, transportation expert at Greenpeace Germany, seemed to be representing a lost cause.
He was the only speaker who strongly opposed the electric car as the savior of individual mobility et the Automobilwoche conference on "The New Automobile" on May 6.
Electric cars run mostly on power derived from coal and nuclear power, he noted. And that's not environmentally friendly.
But listeners could also discover parallels to Lohbeck's message in the speeches of Robert Bosch technology chief Bernd Bohr and Daimler development chief Thomas Weber.
Bohr and Weber made the case for proceeding with multiple approaches to developing environmentally friendly cars and staying open to new technologies. That means not underestimating improvements in the efficiency of internal combustion engines, complemented by hybrid technology.
Lohbeck did not let the auto industry off hook. In the past, he said, the industry too often squandered improvements in efficiency in exchange for more horsepower and greater comfort.
In private conversations, auto executives and suppliers acknowledge this. A board member of a supplier once told me that his company once asked automakers whether it should boost performance or reduce fuel consumption if it could find a way to improve an engine's efficiency by 10 percent. "Nine out of 10 times, the answer was more performance," the executive said.
Back on the offensive
That is likely one of the reasons that the industry has been on defensive to such an extent in past years. And now it is using electric mobility to get back on the offensive.
The mood is similar in the electric power industry. That was clearly visible when Carolin Reichwert, the executive handling electric mobility at the German electricity company RWE, spoke at the conference.
Electric power companies are enjoying being on the right side of the barricades after past debates over nuclear power, extending the life of environmentally unfriendly power plants and the future of coal-fired electrical power plants. It is here that the world will be saved.
Shai Agassi turned out to be the truly magnificent figure at the conference. With messianic zeal, he sought to win his 150 listeners over to the Better Place concept of battery exchanges in electric cars.
But Agassi's unmatched eloquence, saying at one point "I am here to rescue your industry," fell on skeptical ears among many conference listeners.
So far, Agassi's Better Place has not found a partner in Germany. Daimler and the other German automakers definitely do not want Agassi to rescue them. They must have their reasons.
Guido Reinking is editor of Automobilwoche.
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