The recent Volkswagen diesel emissions debacle could start the ball rolling in Europe on much tougher emissions standards generally with a bigger real world component, Battery guru Menachem Anderman told BBB in an exclusive interview.
And while this will push the company much faster towards PHEV introduction, it could kill the market for lead-acid in stop-start, he said.
“You could describe Volkswagen’s behaviour on the diesel front as tax avoidance, but stop-start is like a tax loophole ,” said Anderman.
“It’s well understood that while stop-start is optimized for laboratory conditions using lead-acid batteries, it doesn’t achieve the fuel economy and CO2 reduction in the real world and some customers ask for it to be turned off.”
Anderman’s comments come on the eve of publication of his latest Xev report (see publisher’s blog), where he predicts European CO2 emissions being pushed down to 75g/l.
VW will change direction with a push on PHEVs because of its strong Chinese ties. The Chinese state is offering tax incentives for vehicles that can travel at least 50km on electric drive only, and have expressed the wish to have a million PHEVs on its roads by 2020, from a near zero base. Virtually all the batteries will be produced by LG, Samsung and Panasonic, with new battery plants starting up in China, said Anderman.
