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“I know they secretly drink wine and publicly preach water.” The famous line of the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is more than 200 years old and has not lost anything of its relevance. While Heine once criticized church leaders who prescribed water to the hungry population but drank fine wine themselves, car manufacturers today seem to be playing a similarly hypocritical game. Because on the one hand they are investing billions in electric mobility and at the same time they are now launching more high-horsepower internal combustion engines than ever before. How does this come together?
Back in 2012: Electric car pioneer Tesla launched the first mass-market Model S, the precursor to all modern electric cars. Rather than being recognized, Tesla is just getting laughs from executive floors from Wolfsburg to Detroit. E-mobility will never prevail, at least not in the foreseeable future. However, major manufacturers soon had to invest in initially unpopular e-mobiles. Because politicians also admitted that the auto industry would not give up on CO₂-prone combustion models if persuaded.
I missed the change
With groans about ever-lower CO₂ limits, the first electric vehicles from established manufacturers hit the market a few years after Tesla. But the accusations against politicians did not subside: they had to be given more time, after all, electric models could not be switched over to overnight. The industry has never accepted the accusation that it simply exceeded predictable (climate) change. As an individual automaker, you can never get customers excited about e-cars. In any case, customers always wanted petrol and diesel, but not electricity. At the same time, the underpowered Tesla proved the opposite – with hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the Model 3 that no one had seen before.
But the wind has been blowing in hurricane force for a long time: with almost expected obedience, one automaker has announced the premature end of combustion models one after another. The EU demands this by 2035 – after all, it wants to be completely climate neutral by 2050. Car manufacturers “Let’s do it faster!” she replied. Not just with drivers, but with everything from resources to production.
Clean thanks to the green laundry
Instead of Argentine cowhide, recycled plastics are now used, at best even microplastics from the ocean. And CO₂ emissions are also reduced if the new body is made from recycled metal instead of steel produced from large amounts of coal-generated electricity. The problem with this is that automakers leave their footprints elsewhere on the planet.
Because, of course, e-cars are not eco-friendly (also interesting: the rare earth myth). But the reality is that almost all environmental experts state that electric models have a significantly better ecological balance over their lifecycles than comparable internal combustion engines. Unfortunately, with e-mobility, new cars are also getting bigger, heavier and more powerful – especially because of their huge battery packs. A comparison: The lightest version of the newly launched Mercedes EQS SUV luxury suite weighs a whopping 2730 kilograms. The predecessor of the S-Class, the W 111 series – the cornerstone of all modern-day luxury cars – weighed just 1320 kilograms in 1959.
Stronger, faster, more thirsty
In addition to the all-new Stromer, numerous high-horsepower innovations with internal combustion engines are currently celebrating their debut – think Heinrich Heine. Especially German premium brands are once again at full throttle: Audi, for example, is bringing the RS 6 and RS 7 models with new versions that are “more powerful and faster” than before. But the power of 630 hp is bought with a standard consumption of 12.7 liters per 100 kilometers. Rival BMW and its powersports division M GmbH are presenting for the first time ever a station wagon version of the sports icon M3 – 510 hp, the M3 Touring accelerates to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds and reaches a top speed of 280 km/h. If it is used, the standard consumption of over ten liters will of course turn into waste.
And the larger M5 will also be available as a station wagon in the next generation, and the recently launched XM charged SUV is said to be equipped with the drivetrain. This translates to a peak output of 748 hp and 1000 Nm of torque. Stuttgart rival Mercedes will soon do the same with an AMG version of the brand new E-Class – the E 63 shouldn’t go below 700 hp either. Both vehicles, the M5 and the E 63, should come as plug-in hybrids at least. However, low consumption values of standardized WLTP tests will not be possible in daily use.
the flood after us
The vehicles mentioned are – or will be – technically superior vehicles, no doubt about it. Still, why are such high horsepower cars currently celebrating a renaissance? On the one hand, this is a kind of last-ditch protest: once again there is full performance before the top versions of the eight-cylinder engines of the future, six-cylinder and six-cylinder engines are replaced by electric-assisted four-cylinder engines. package – as before. Ironically, the trend towards e-mobility opens up the necessary scope for this: as there are around 20 percent of pure electric vehicles among new cars in Switzerland, most manufacturers easily exceed below currently stated CO₂ limits; sports models still fit under them.
On the other hand, the classic chicken-egg problem also applies. Why do manufacturers still offer such models? Because there is customer demand from those who love performance or who do not fully trust electric motors yet. At least the top versions with plug-in hybrid drives may convince some customers to switch to an electric car once they see how many trips per day can be made on electric alone.
And finally, most newly released cars are a farewell greeting. For example, Audi is reorganizing its model range: the current A6 will become an internal combustion-engined A5, while the new A6 will be fully electric in parallel. In terms of performance, electric vehicles should be significantly superior to their internal combustion engine counterparts. Especially high horsepower cars are becoming an argument for the transition to electromobility. At least this should be the future in the upper segments. Just for the sake of prices, this is unlikely to be the solution for the masses. Here, especially bulky manufacturers have to follow small, affordable electric vehicles.
Source: Blick
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
