Energy trade spokesperson

“Consumers no longer know what’s right”

The registration figures for e-vehicles are declining.

(Bild: Spitzbart Wolfgang)

Private households are to be relieved just as much as industry, which is struggling with high production costs - EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced an action plan for affordable energy. Bernd Zierhut agrees that measures are long overdue. The chairman of the Upper Austrian energy trade describes the situation as "extremely dramatic".

First the cost of energy rose, then the cost of staff, and within a very short space of time logistics, food etc. also became more expensive. The inflationary spiral that began at the same time as the war in Ukraine has triggered many things - the loss of competitiveness can no longer be denied, and cost-cutting and efficiency improvement programs are the order of the day for companies.

"I see the current situation as extremely dramatic," says Bernd Zierhut. The Managing Director of Doppler Holding is Chairman of the Energy Trade Section of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce. The high energy costs are difficult to digest: "Upper Austria is an energy-intensive province - due to its high level of industrialization and its many production sites, but also because of its many trading companies. And we have made energy very expensive for a variety of reasons. This has really harmed Upper Austria. As a landlocked location that is not located by the sea, we have actually been hit by all the price rises."

We need cheap energy - not only for consumers, but especially for production and industry if we want to be competitive in the global market.

Bernd Zierhut, Obmann der Fachgruppe Energiehandel in der Wirtschaftskammer Oberösterreich

This circumstance is poison: "Not only for consumers, for whom filling up has become more expensive or who have to pay more for their electricity and gas bills, but also for the economy, which is particularly dependent on cheap, inexpensive energy," says Zierhut, who appeals to those responsible in the new federal government to "ensure cheaper energy in the future".

"Liquid gas is much more expensive than pipeline gas"
The energy trading spokesman continues: "We are currently in the modest situation of increasingly sourcing liquid gas from the United States via the Atlantic. And this liquid gas is considerably more expensive than the pipeline gas that came via the Nordstream pipelines and similar in the past."

The transformation underway in the world of mobility is challenging energy traders and consumers alike. For whom does it make sense to switch to an electric vehicle? Is it affordable? Will combustion engines remain in use for much longer than expected? "In principle, there is no alternative to the change process. But I believe that the consumer has been forgotten. That's why we are where we are now, with declining registration figures for e-mobility," says Zierhut, "the consumer no longer even knows what is right.