Report Power2Drive
The big picture
e.Go e.wave X
© press-inform – the press office
At the Power2Drive trade fair in 2022, the focus will be on holistic electromobility. In addition to charging cars, energy storage and conversion play an important role in Munich.
Munich taxi drivers are certainly not the most patient of our contemporaries. Only during the Oktoberfest do the taxi drivers voluntarily line up in long lines to wait for passengers, who come in droves. This iron rule can now be deleted. In front of the Munich trade fair, one light beige vehicle lined up after the next. The reason: The Power2Drive trade fair, which deals with charging infrastructure and electromobility. The fact that almost none of the taxis are Stromer doesn’t bother the passengers much.
The weather in Munich presents itself from the best side. Flags are waving in front of the main entrance to the exhibition center and the sun is shining from the blue-white sky. It’s a coming and going. Above all in the six halls with the letter, the hustle and bustle is increasing. Everywhere people are discussing, scraps of Chinese language are mixed with German and English. In contrast, the IAA at the same location a good six months ago was a tired event. The backpack is a popular accessory for trade fair visitors and one stand is lined up next to the other, with eager trade fair visitors meandering in between. Everywhere there is discussion. Einet insists on removing a drawer-sized component from a BYD box and showing it to an expert. On the Powe2Drive it’s hands-on.
BYD is known to most as a car manufacturer, but Built Your Dreams also deals with batteries. The appearance of the Chinese is not bad parents, but Huawei clearly trumps the compatriots with one of the largest stands at the fair. The motto “Building a Low Carbon Smart Society” is representative of a major topic at Power2Drive. It is about a cosmos consisting of sustainable energies such as solar energy / photovoltaics, energy storage and management and their conversion. Not only hardware is in demand. In conferences, experts try to provide answers to these questions. The fair is very interactive anyway: Managers give lectures and then answer questions from those present.
The fair is developing away from a pure “how do I get from A to B” fair, just as electromobility is developing into a holistic concept with many important components. Energy storage is one of them. Voltronic Power will be showing the EnerSys 123, a 30kW automotive charger with 20kWh of fixed storage and a 10kW inverter that harnesses solar energy. So a home filling station for photovoltaic owners. But that’s what efficiency is all about. Inverters, i.e. inverters that convert direct current into alternating current, were advertised at many stands.
The topic of energy is driving the entire industry: from Samsung SDI to Siemens – the big players are honored at the Munich trade fair. At the very back of Hall B6, the focus is on the automobile. The main role is played by the charging options. The wallbox is no longer a simple power dispenser, but a fully networked control center. “The Wallbox is not an automotive market,” says Dr. Karl Kolmsee, Director Product Portfolio at Webasto, and thus alludes to the role of mini charging stations in the large mobility ecosystem.
Intelligent, networked charging options are still an important topic. Bidirectional charging is also playing an increasingly important role, as are DC wallboxes such as the Quasar bidirectional home charger from Spanish company Wallbox. A second trend is small mobile chargers that can also be used in household sockets. The Schüttorf company Kortmann Beton takes care of another security aspect and wants to protect the charging stations from external contacts with a protective wall.
You can’t do it without a car after all. Skoda has the Enyaq in its luggage and the Aachen start-up e.Go Mobile has brought the e.wave X, the successor to its microcar “Life”, to Munich. However, without the brand ambassador and Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr. Which is perhaps a good thing, because otherwise the hustle and bustle would have been even greater. The interior of the small crossover has also blossomed: the cockpit consists of a large 23-inch screen and the range is a maximum of 240 kilometers thanks to the 21.5 kWh battery. Very important: The e.wave X can be charged with 11 kilowatts, previously it was only 3.5 kilowatts. The engine has also been boosted by 20 kW / 27 hp to 80 kW / 109 hp. However, the price has also skyrocketed to 24,990 euros. Visitors to the fair still had the opportunity to take a test drive around the fairgrounds in a Skoda Enyaq or a Polestar.