Mobility: Future Drives

In this article, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the Helmholtz Institute for Battery Research and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) critically examine various alternative drive systems, including synthetic fuels. However, the representatives of the various alternative drive systems agree on one point: "We need a mobility mix".

Most energy researchers agree that conventional fuels such as diesel and petrol are harmful to the climate due to their high pollutant emissions and will be replaced by new technologies in the future. The drives of the future include synthetic fuels made from hydrogen, carbon dioxide and - to a lesser extent - biowaste or biogenic residues, the battery, i.e. electric motors with accumulators, and the fuel cell, which uses water and atmospheric oxygen as energy carriers. The advantages and disadvantages of the individual technologies will be explained in more detail by the researchers.