- Opel targeting leading role in advancement of electric-mobility as part of the PACE! strategic plan
- Project in the Engineering Center to start in a few months and support creation of an intelligent charging infrastructure for electric-mobility of tomorrow
- Reflection of mobility situation in Hesse in 2035
- Participation of the House of Energy think tank run by the Federal State of Hesse
In total, more than 160 charging stations, which will charge the electric car fleet of the Engineering Center in future, will be created. Extensive and well-founded simulations of numerous scenarios will be possible based on actual data, ensuring the transferability of the results. The concept was developed together with House of Energy, the think tank of the Hessian energy transition.
This is a further milestone on Opel’s journey to playing a leading role in electric-mobility – a clear goal of the PACE! strategic plan. The Rüsselsheim-based carmaker will have four electrified models in its portfolio by the end of 2020. These will deliver a lot of driving pleasure and will accelerate the demand for electric cars. And by 2024, there will be electrified variant of each model in the Opel line-up.
“Opel will be electric. We are now creating the required charging infrastructure at our Engineering Center in Rüsselsheim and simultaneously supporting politics and the authorities in the creation of an appropriate charging infrastructure. One thing is clear: electric-mobility will only be a success if vehicle development and expansion of the charging infrastructure go hand in hand,” said Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller.
The share of electric vehicles in the manufacturer’s development area will reflect a mobility situation as expected for 2035. With this the project partners want to gain valuable insights into the charging behaviour and requirements relating to the network expansion. Charging current and charging time are adapted according to the particular use of the development vehicles with the help of an intelligent control system. This smart infrastructure will ensure that the entire fleet is always charged appropriately despite the high energy demands of the electric vehicles – and all this with a minimum expansion of the existing electricity grid.
“The energy transition is underway, now we need to make progress with the transport transition, especially in Hesse where around half of the energy demand can be attributed to transport. That is why we are driving electric-mobility by, amongst others, the widespread support for charging infrastructure. We are delighted that a Hessian carmaker in Opel will be playing an innovative and guiding part in developing the mobility of tomorrow,” said Tarek Al-Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal State of Hesse.
In addition, a modular battery storage, which will reuse Opel Ampera batteries to temporarily store electricity, will be installed in the Test Center Rodgau-Dudenhofen. This so-called stationary “second life” application targets mitigating peak loads and thus stabilizing the electricity grid. A total of 18 vehicle batteries will be reused in the battery storage, which has the storage capacity to a supply a four-person household with electricity for a month.
ABOUT THE PROJECT PARTNERS
Kassel University (consortium leaders)
Three faculties of Kassel University are entrusted with the E-Mobility-Lab project:
- The teaching and research of the vehicle systems faculty focuses on problems of electrical and electronic engineering and mechatronic in vehicles and their surrounding environment with a focus on energy efficiency and distribution. www.uni-kassel.de/eecs/fsg
- The ComTec (communication technology) faculty mainly deals with research on “Algorithms and methods for context sensitivity” and “Software engineering for ubiquitous computing” for mobile networks and applications. www.comtec.eecs.uni-kassel.de
- The Economics faculty that focuses on decentralised energy economy deals with the economic and energy-related analysis of national and regional strategies for the creation of an economic and sustainable energy supply system in Germany. www.uni-kassel.de/go/wetzel
FLAVIA IT develops manufacturer-independent software and applications for the field of e-mobility. The software application GRIDWARE provides a utilisation and invoice platform for the charging infrastructure of electric vehicles, offering charging station operators a powerful management tool that controls and connects the systems in real time. www.flavia-it.de
PLUG’n CHARGE
PLUG'n CHARGE GmbH offers a product family of charging stations for e-cars and e-bikes. The charging stations combine housings in a fancy design (developed in a project which is sponsored by the federal state of Hesse) with a software based on the OCPP 1.6 standard. In 2017, over one hundred of such stations were set up across Germany (B2B) and successfully integrated into various IT back-end and roaming systems. PLUG'n CHARGE also provides a comprehensive eMobility service (monitoring, maintenance, operation) when the charging stations have been installed. www.plugncharge.de
About House of Energy
The House of Energy located in Kassel sees itself as a “think tank” that is supported by the industry, science, universities, colleges, research facilities along with the Hessian government. It works in a transdisciplinary way and supports the energy transition in Hesse conceptually and economically. The House of Energy accompanies forward-looking projects with a technological emphasis as a centre of competence as well as a communication, coordination and knowledge transfer platform. www.house-of-energy.org
