Bavaria's broadside against BEVs: Where is "Battery and Pretzel"?!

Enthusiasm for BEVs is something else: Just before visiting the impressive EV Roadshow at the state-owned excellence university TU Munich, Bavaria's Minister of Transport unleashed a broadside against battery-electric drive that made all the experts on site flinch and is unlikely to be an exemplary piece of political motivation for the highly dedicated researchers. Is this "just election campaigning" or "genuine conviction"? Are there BEV Philistines lurking in Bavaria?

The latter is actually unlikely, as Bernreiter is considered a calm, sober, and pragmatic person, especially as a mechanical engineering graduate from none other than TU Munich. Nevertheless, just the day before, he had harshly criticized the EU's newly finalized vote on phasing out combustion engines and called for "technology openness," which the CSU apparently interprets as clinging to an outdated model.

"Drivers will not all be forced into electric cars," thundered the CSU politician. And warned dramatically: "We will see that most of them will hold on to used cars with combustion engines for as long as possible."

Cuban conditions in Bavaria?

"From 2035, cars on our streets will gradually look like those in Cuba," Bernreiter gloomily predicted, stoking more apocalyptic car fears rather than calming citizens. Furthermore, especially in rural areas, people depend on cars. Not everyone can afford an expensive electric car, has a home charging facility, or can get by on a single battery charge for the whole day. The EU had overlooked these problems for "ideological reasons." And his boss Markus Söder, incidentally the Bavarian Prime Minister and not just any right-wing opposition loudmouth, added some more fossil fuel to the table:

"The EU's general ban on combustion engines from 2035 harms Bavaria's industrial base and automotive workers. Reducing fossil fuels is the right thing to do, but besides electromobility, e-fuels and hydrogen also offer great potential for climate-neutral mobility," Söder stated.

Söder completely overlooks the fact that it is precisely the prolonged reliance on combustion engines that now concretely jeopardizes jobs, not to mention the often-forgotten "lifespaces" on the planet. Many technologies and patents, whether for batteries, electric motors, or fuel cells, were initially developed in Germany.

The "value creation machine" of the combustion engine ran so well for so long that no one felt compelled to set the course toward "fossil-free drive," meaning e-mobility. This is a case for every introductory economics lecture at the university, exemplifying how trends can be missed - and how one risks becoming "kodaked," as Americans say in reference to the film pioneer clinging to color film in the emerging digital photography era.

But as usual in the land of "laptops and lederhosen," the award for the most outlandish comments goes to the walking "one-man pub table" Hubert Aiwanger of the Free Voters ("Hubsi of the Week"), who doesn't care that he should be a more statesmanlike figure as the Minister of Economy and Deputy Prime Minister and should be glad to have cutting-edge e-mobility research like that at TU Munich and many other places in the Free State under his wing. Instead, he caters to right-wing CSU stereotypes, ranting like a textbook populist from Hungary or the so-called, but certainly not good, "Alternative for Germany" against EU institutions:

"The combustion engine ban from 2035 is not really about decarbonizing transport. It's about the ideologues' goal to abolish cars and prevent individual mobility. Otherwise, how do you explain the eradication of future clean combustion engines powered by biofuel or synfuels, and the blockage of hydrogen in mobility by the Greens in the federal government?"

Pure electric cars will not be enough to keep the more than 40 million cars in Germany running. Apart from completely ignoring the climate goals Bavaria has set for itself to be climate-neutral by 2040, and the fact that it is more about making life on the planet bearable rather than just keeping a lot of cars running: The Bavarian Minister of Economy seems entirely unfamiliar with the concept of a mobility transition. It's not just about changing the drive system and continuing business as usual. It's also about getting people excited about multimodal transportation and encouraging them to switch, especially in the often cited rural areas used as the ultimate argument against any change.

Even in rural areas, as research by TU Munich has shown, most everyday driving needs can be met by electric cars. Why not? Especially since integrating home photovoltaics with storage batteries and wall boxes in single-family homes in rural areas is much easier than in cities. It would not only be ecological but also economical. Don't tell us it can't be done, to quote the unforgettable SPD politician Regine Hildebrandt.

It should be the role of an economic minister to provide an alternative to (owning) a car with a determined expansion of public transport and sharing and on-demand services. But it is election season in Bavaria, so one must not think (or at least talk) beyond the next pub table. This won't make the proud state between the Main and Isar rivers fit for the future. It won't spark "lust for innovation" either.

Discreet head-shaking among experts

At TU Munich, this criticism on the day of the "BEV performance show" is met with discreet head-shaking. The train has left the station, the industry has long set the course, and there has been plenty of technological openness, as heard in conversations at the Roadshow. Prof. Markus Lienkamp from the Chair of Automotive Engineering makes it even clearer in his speech: For passenger cars, the battery-electric drive is clearly the most efficient option; only for trucks will there still be a need for greater "technological openness," including solutions like LNG or perhaps even hydrogen combustion engines.

Maybe Bavarian politicians, who often like to present themselves as devout Catholics, can understand it better this way: The mass for the combustion engine has been said. How about a campaign for enthusiasm from the "BEV lads from Bayern" and the new slogan "Battery & Brezn" instead of "railing against BEVs"? As stated, enthusiasm looks different. So does responsible, forward-looking politics.