by Diplomatic Council member Thorsten Rixmann*

The question of banning combustion engines in the EU is being discussed in far too black and white terms. A better approach would be to adopt an ‘intelligent use of combustion engines’ as a political, technical and social compromise instead of a general ban on combustion engines. According to this approach, combustion engines could be banned for propulsion, but compact power generators could be approved for charging the batteries installed in the vehicle. This intelligent combination could become the lifeline for the European automotive industry because, on the one hand, it is environmentally friendly and, on the other, it meets consumer demands for driving without range anxiety and long charging times. Consumers would love this type of vehicle because it allows them to drive electrically while avoiding all the disadvantages of conventional e-mobility.

On the recommendation of the United Nations

At the Obrist Group, we have developed a concept of this kind to the prototype stage, under the name Hyperhybrid. The vehicle is powered by an electric motor, but the large and heavy battery packs of conventional electric cars are replaced by a compact combustion engine that is used solely to generate the electricity for the electric drive. Such a compromise would combine ‘the best of both worlds’. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has already recognised this concept as the ‘Most Promising Solution Award Winner’ in the ‘Energy Efficiency’ category in 2023.

Since the combustion engine in this approach functions exclusively as an electricity generator, it always runs in the optimal speed range and is therefore very economical. In addition, it can be technically designed to work with both petrol and e-fuels. The Obrist Group has achieved consumption values of around 1.5 litres of petrol or 3.3 litres of methanol per 100 kilometres with prototypes. The battery merely serves as an energy store between the generator and the electric motor and can therefore be much more compact than in a conventional electric car. In prototypes, the so-called ‘CO2 backpack’, i.e. the CO2 emissions associated with battery production, could be kept about 85 per cent lower compared to purely battery-electric cars. What's more, in series production, the hyper hybrid would be significantly cheaper than battery-only vehicles because the high costs for the battery pack would largely be eliminated.

Combined concept would boost demand

Above all, this combination of electric motor and on-board power generator would give a massive boost to demand for the corresponding vehicles. The range anxiety would be eliminated in one fell swoop because the hyper hybrid has a range of over 1,000 kilometres according to WLTP calculation specifications. And since the car can be refuelled at any petrol station, there is no need to worry about having to find charging stations and accept longer charging times. Since the purely electric range of the prototypes is over 80 kilometres, which is sufficient for 90 percent of all everyday journeys, climate protection would also be taken into account to a very large extent.

We need cars made in Europe that are so attractive that they can generate sufficient demand on a large scale without the need for purchase incentives or other government subsidy programmes. This is obviously not the case with purely electric cars, as the difficulties in the automotive industry unfortunately all too clearly demonstrate. I therefore appeal to politicians and manufacturers alike to favour the best-of-both-worlds concept of the hyper hybrid – the smarter electric vehicle – as recommended by the United Nations.

Targeted forward strategy for the European automotive industry

The industry's investments in e-car platforms remain protected because they can continue to be used for the new generation of hyper-hybrid vehicles. Put simply, the heavy battery packs are removed and replaced by a power generator with a small tank and a compact high-performance battery. Of course, in practice it is a bit more complicated than that, but it would finally be a targeted forward strategy for the European automotive industry in the face of consumer reluctance to buy battery-electric cars – provided that politicians play along.

* Thorsten Rixmann is Chief Marketing Officer of the German-Austrian industrial group Obrist Group. This group focuses on innovations for global, sustainable and CO2-reducing energy concepts. The spectrum ranges from the global supply of renewable energies to atmospheric fuels (aFuels) and innovative CO2-negative (i.e. climate-positive!) drive concepts for the automotive industry. The Obrist Group currently has 252 registered and 128 granted patents worldwide, making it one of the most important global innovators in the field of sustainable energy concepts.