Top Volkswagen researcher says no electric car explosion

While Volkswagen may be offering their first electric car as early as 2010 and are already imagining their 2028 electric offerings, the company's chief research officer, Juergen Leohold, doesn't see an explosion in the numbers of electro-mobiles on the road any time soon. In fact, by the time 2028 rolls around, he only expects them to make up only 10 per cent of that future fleet. What does he see as the big hold up? Batteries. According to the German boffin, lithium ion batteries may have already come a long way but they still lack in energy density and production capacity. Their current cost is also seen as prohibitively high. To top all that, he doesn't think it will ever top the internal combustion engine when it comes applications like long-haul trucks. Way to buzzkill, dude.

All that is not to say he is not a fan of the technology. Au contraire, mes frères. He expects VW to start off with small city cars, not unlike the Up! pictured above, but then use the electric drivetrain in larger, family size models. He says, "We have an ambition to electrify more than just the really small cars, but also our main model series, the Golf," Ah, that's more like it!

[Source: Deutsche Welle]