What is the environmental balance of electric cars? How will the range, economy and charging infrastructure develop over the long term? Will electric mobility lead to job losses? Fraunhofer ISI addresses such questions in a policy brief it presented at the Battery Forum Germany in Berlin. According to the authors, while there is nothing standing in the way of a broad market diffusion of electric cars between 2020 and 2030, there are still numerous challenges to be overcome.

At the beginning of 2020, there were more than 7.5 million electric cars on the roads worldwide; their share of global car sales is estimated at 25 to 75% from 2030, depending on the market study. This has a major impact on global demand for lithium-ion batteries, whose total capacity is expected to increase from 500 to 1,500 GWh (around 2025) to 1,000 to 6,000 GWh (from 2030). In Europe, almost 600 GWh of cell production capacity has been announced for 2030 – half of which is to be produced in Germany. This corresponds to an average of 20% of global battery cell demand, which would cover the expected demand of European car manufacturers. Against this background, Fraunhofer's fact check provides an overview of issues and formulates what measures need to be taken in this period.