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ePaper created 2015-05-06, 08:18:29 | version 1.38.0
home to 16 of the 20 most polluted cities worldwide. Politicians are facing a dilemma: Whereas the automotive industry is one of the country’s major growth engines, ecological problems are putting the brakes on further growth. Favourite options therefore increasingly include solutions causing fewer CO2 emissions. By 2015, the Chinese government intends to put 500,000 electric cars on the road and five million by 2020. E-mobility needs acceptance As a supplier of key power electronics components, Heraeus is a part of this solution. In electric and hybrid vehicles, power electronics converts electric energy into the voltage and frequency matching the application and controls the engine speed. This makes the use of energy more efficient. But both the ever-increasing quality and rating of the models offered by the automotive industry and the massive official support are ignored by Chinese car buyers most of whom still opt against electric vehicles – similar to the European ones. In 2013, just a little over 11,000 electric vehicles were sold in China. Further improving the products is therefore what it’s at. As far as power electronic components are concerned, the consequence is: If they wish to qualify for use in the automotive industry, they need to become even sturdier in general and more resistive to large temperature variations in particular. Heraeus is therefore continuously investing in the development of its materials. In 2014, for example, Heraeus developed a metal-based super glue which is currently undergoing testing by the research partners of the ProPower Network. The Network aims to create the basis of an energy-efficient, miniaturized and reliable new generation of power electronic components. 18 MOBILITY G et out your mobile, click on the app and you have chosen your means of transport. Providing net- worked traffic information by smart applications gives city residents more and new freedom of choice. Because efficiency is the magic word of the future: It is not the means of transport as such which decides your choice but how well it is suited for that exact moment. It is already common practice today, to use a smartphone to check the traffic situation, find the fastest connection, locate the nearest rented bike, buy a bus or train ticket or rent a car. We google for the best route with regard to the traffic situation. We walk, ride our bike or go by car either under or above the ground. This flexibility of choosing a means of transport meets with the global wish for individual mobility. And it gives city planners more scope if the interest of pedestrians, bikers and car drivers are no longer conflictive but complementary. Because it is mainly the metropolises of this world which are desper- ately waiting for new answers to the issue of future mobility. The global megatrend of urbanisation is non-diminishing. Cities keep growing – on all continents. Today there are more than 300 megacities in the world, 40 of them in China alone. At present, more than 50% of the People’s Republic’s inhabitants live in cities. And the attraction of Chinese metropolises is unbroken. By 2030, over 70% are anticipated to be city residents – one eighth of the world population. Urbanisation has its price: More people translate into more cars – there are 31 Chinese cities already with more than one million vehicles. The problem associated with the ever-growing number of cars is not only reflected by eight-lane main roads which have become too small to master the drastically increased number of vehicles. It is also visible in the enormous air pollution which caused China a good deal of bad publicity. China is Aspiring movers of the mobility markets must first of all be sure to be on the move themselves. Technologies supplied by Heraeus are being used everywhere to take people to where they wish to go – today and tomorrow, by e-bike, by high-speed train and by airplane.