It's complicated

Bankruptcy, cancelation and scepticism: e-car hype has flattened out

Speed up, blinkers off: F. Peter Mitterbauer calls for an end to black-and-white thinking when it comes to mobility.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/REUTERS, Harald Dostal)

Is the change in mobility in crisis? A few days ago, electric car start-up Fisker slipped into insolvency and BMW canceled a billion-euro order from a battery manufacturer. We spoke to Miba CEO F. Peter Mitterbauer about electric mobility, the complexity of the change and the importance of the population.

Will diesel and petrol cars still be allowed in the European Union from 2035 or not? With the announcement by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that the planned phase-out of combustion engines will be put to the test again in 2026, and because a subsidy in Germany has also expired, the hype surrounding electric mobility seems to have run out of steam.

Tesla challenger stumbles

At the end of February, electric car start-up Fisker had already emphasized that the company would not be able to survive without financial support. In mid-June, the problems of the company founded by car designer Henrik Fister became insurmountable. The result: insolvency proceedings were applied for. Fiskier had already reported a net loss of 760 million US dollars in the last financial year. The vehicles were built at Magna in Graz.

"It won't happen in black and white"
"The e-cars are coming, but we now have to see how quickly. It certainly won't happen at the speed and in the black-and-white way that has been discussed and believed," says Miba CEO F. Peter Mitterbauer.

The automotive industry is an important partner for the Laakirchen-based group of companies that he manages. A lot of brainpower goes into e-mobility projects: Miba received its first series orders for the Flexcooler, a development for cooling batteries.

"The reality is much more complex"
Mitterbauer is critical of the fact that a lot of change is to be determined by regulations and thus by politics: "The reality is much more complex than is often discussed in public. I also think it has been overlooked to a certain extent to take the population with us."

What is needed now? "We need people who consider what is right and feasible and how this can be achieved. That requires more complexity."