1992: The Rügen Experiment

From 1992 to 1996, research minister Heinz Riesenhuber and environment minister Angela Merkel demonstrated the unsuitability of electric cars on the island of Rügen.

Who killed the electric car? The lead-acid battery!

Take a Golf II and replace the combustion engine with an electric motor. You leave the gearbox inside, after all, every kg counts to increase consumption. But lead batteries were used to guarantee that the vehicle was unfit for use. Here are the incredible technical specifications of the Golf CitySTROMer At 13 seconds from 0 to 50, it was much more phlegmatic than my father's 1965 Mercedes 190D Diesel with automatic transmission. It also had 55 hp, but the CitySTROMer only had 27 hp. A range of 80 km was possible at a constant 80 km/h. Practical consumption 25 kWh/100 km. With absolutely phlegmatic driving performance, this 4-seater consumed as much as a briskly driven Tesla X with 7 seats. Multiply this by an electricity mix with a high proportion of coal-fired power and you have proof that electric cars are no good. Angela Merkel is a physicist, so she should have realized the impossibility of the experiment. But the first rule of politician's mikado is: whoever moves first loses. If the German car cartel had provoked her, it would probably have forced her to resign.

Lithium batteries were known

The Wikipedia article on the Rügen experiment links to an article from Bild der Wissenschaft 7/1997: Quote: Traction prototypes have so far only existed as individual cells with expensive cobalt as the electrode material. However, researchers such as Peter G. Bruce from St. Andrews University in Scotland are pursuing the goal of replacing cobalt with cheaper manganese oxide. The first lithium-ion traction batteries could come onto the market in four years at the earliest - at a cost of 300 marks per kilowatt hour. This would mean that a battery pack with the capacity of a lead-acid battery (30 kWh) would cost around 9000 marks.

A Tesla S would have been possible as early as 2005

In 1997, it was estimated that a 30 kWh lithium battery could be produced for 9000 DM in 2001. 90 kWh for EUR 15,000 could easily have been included in the price of a luxury car, as Tesla demonstrated a decade later. 4 years until the lithium manganese batteries are ready for series production, another 4 years for the new generation of cars. The German car cartel could have brought out vehicles similar to the Tesla S as early as 2005. But my first encounter with lithium-manganese batteries was in 2008 when I tested a Chinese electric scooter. Tesla Motors was founded because Elon Musk was annoyed by the forced scrapping of GM EV1 electric cars. Tesla Motors would never have been founded if the German manufacturers had shown the possibilities instead of proving the impossibility.