
“The land of the motor car […] has been painfully slow to embrace electric vehicles. The cost and weight of such cars, together with concerns over their range and performance, has left Germans firmly wedded to the combustion engine […]” (Handelsblatt, June 2015). Will electric cars ever achieve the same popularity as diesel- or petrol-driven cars? The German government plans to accelerate e-mobility’s market penetration by providing more money for R&D and by supporting the installation of a more comprehensive charging network. Promoting technical advances is an excellent way of fostering electric mobility. But how can companies themselves foster and benefit from electric mobility? And what kinds of companies are we talking about – car manufacturers, component suppliers, energy providers, transport authorities, IT start-ups? Putting aside efforts to upgrade cars and install charging stations, the e-mobility market is turning out to be crucial for far more companies than probably anyone could have foreseen.
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