When grown men now screaming like little kids of can only be about cars these are my colleagues on a special assignment traveling across europe in electric the fields and i think a lot of fun with it hello welcome to made in germany which is today completely devoted to electric cars this summer we sent out our report as christiane of oman and agast to test drive half a dozen of them from cheap production models to High Performance prototypes we wanted to find out. Really the future of individual mobility and how far away is that future anyway first ill feel as reporters take you to italy that electric comic. As made a name for itself with a live shot sees that help save power from that its on to switzerland where they had an intense encounter with a vehicle that accelerates foster than any other. In the world and its made by. Any other christiane last year we drove across germany in various electric cars now were touring europe and it all feels very familiar but once again its hot thirty eight degrees were in italy once again the car is a bit wonky its electric but whatever it is the electricity. We wanted to start off small. Definitely small we had to really cozy up despite the heat and we still have switzerland austria norway head of us when the men and woman. For how will i cope. But first we were in italy. We have a two seater vehicle manufactured by. Prices for this car start at twenty thousand euros they were assembled in the town of. This plant has been building electric cars for eleven years its a world away from the gasoline guzzling sports cars that italians are known for. We have this one of the names might. Be a few. And we have talked sorry exactly what is the special thing about october first of all authority is supplier of many of the brands you mentioned as a let me know funding is one of the interesting facts and i think that unique fact about the saudis the only producer of electric cars in italy and by cars i mean cars so i wanted to take over a fully electric why do i need another medium in a car like this because one keep calling that your car is the lightness i tell you why if you want to have lets say long range you need to have many batteries and sell but if the car is very light you need less better is then you need less time to charge and the charge is gusting less money so this is our key point somewhere idea of an electric car likeness first of all. The car weighs just seven hundred kilos and has a range of two hundred kilometers. So prime i made our climb one meter eighty five thats over six feet and for me the cars definitely a bit small its quite a rough ride i think the suspension is not quite right its more like a racing car and it sounds like a washing machine. The song to sell. It the best money. Anyone with an electric car in italy will probably need to charge it at home the entire country has just seven thousand eight hundred public charging stations. The government long neglected to expand the network. Its a he do it hes not good at the moment but there are good plans for an improvement. But youre coming from millions he wrote yes so is there any country in europe which is worth worse than here i dunno i dunno honestly. Its difficult to being more worse than here honestly but i know that the government the state connection to make it better. And what i try and go time horizon would be i think. Twenty twenty would be probably the things would be different. Good plans and you know the heart its acceptable for an assessment of what the drama say of row two thousand and twenty is a magic year well lets. Take. Our next stop is the swiss alps. Were driving a nissen leaf one of the worlds top sending a lecture because. The car just glides along its totally quiet or so all electric and like a little dream on the strikers and climbs. The japanese car can go nearly two hundred kilometers on one charge. But it cant keep pace with this one and electric racing car which clocks zero to one hundred kilometers an hour in one and a half seconds even a formula one car is slow by comparison sadly were not allowed to take it for a spin. Were meeting students from the e. T. H. In zero eight who hold the world record for acceleration. Every year students at the university build a new electric racing car. Without fuel more toward. This for motors and the motors are inside the wheels you can see theyre very small but each has fifty horsepower lecithin so we have two hundred horsepower overall for a bit more actually. And it went by and get just one hundred seventy kilos less sounds like it could be pretty fast yeah super vast thats the goal to accelerate as fast as possible. Off in the formula student racing series budding engineers from all over the world compete for the title there are five hundred teams in all four years now the team has been a leading contender. It at that as. We continue our journey happy to be behind the wheel again. Were heading to the town of lyons dying north of syracuse. The keyboards company has been developing electric commercial vehicles here since one thousand nine hundred one. It has over eleven thousand vehicles on the road worldwide its main customers are delivery firms such as the swiss and german Postal Services. Martin keyboards who founded the company now getting choirs from all over the world. These three wheelers will soon be delivering letters in norway so why the special interest from the Postal Service is the current important for me we can help them cut costs before the vehicles accelerate much faster and they also start much faster than conventional vehicles. But each postal worker can save eight seconds per stop off. If that doesnt sound like much but if you think they make six hundred to a thousand stops a day then it soon adds up to a considerable amount all for people and then theres that the rod the all electric roadster that keyboard has developed to have fun with but it comes at a price. Im trying to function calls that it costs thirty six thousand swiss francs but you can also buy it as a kid and assemble it yourself in your living room. Then it costs just twenty seven thousand dollars. And with you know the wall out of my living room to get the car out. All the individual components will be easy to take in but afterwards you will need to build again yes. Ive been building electric cars for twenty five years and most have been practical oneself but i just long to build one thats all about pleasure and nothing else from kong i. Hate it. When if it isnt going to drive its really well there are no bells and whistles inside power steering nothing on. The road holding is great its a lot of fun you can take the bends really france. Its just a bit windy. What about to feel as electric time is is we with me here in the studio. Thanks for joining me come on that looked like a lot of fun do you call that work i mean you could see we had a blast driving that electric roadster that was just awesome but imagine you are in the in the two of us driving in an electric car for two weeks almost ten hours a day and then we try to save some energy by turning off the radio in the ac so thats called an interesting experience and to be honest i think you often he was always a bit afraid of me driving around is that like to have by the way i was very classical. Really suited you very well. You went all over europe as you said two weeks what was the biggest challenge or what were the Biggest Challenges on that trip i think it always came down to the charging because if you have a built in Navigation System which has way to go its very easy but sometimes we didnt have that so we always had to like check the smartphones wait to get the next charging station then you come to a charging station and you realize theres another car and sometimes we havent seen it now in italy but it happened we came to the charging station and it was broken and ima love the city of imola was was down to like two more charging stations and so if you if youre down to like ten percent or less Battery Charge you really hope that the next charging station is going to work what if it doesnt work if you are just the other juice what it would what would you do call the chow truck i dont know never happened to us so but thats the only choice i guess. We saw in that report the delivery the company that makes delivery vans briefly come Delivery Companies be the trailblazers for him ability i think weve seen that because you can you can save a lot of time by using electric cars and for example the german Postal Service the dutch opposed they are already using two thousand five hundred electric cars and theyre saving money by using those cars and it works there they Just Announced they want to build even bigger delivery cars and buyers from the outside they want to use those cars to were going to have another in a moment what was your next destination we went to. Austria next austria ok and then a Small Company is taking on one of the biggest problems facing the electro mobility sector limited range a firm of the city of lens has been making big leaps and terms of battery capacity. Our electric adventure continues we were in linz austria where theres a revolution going on in the battery industry. These internet of a. W. A. Were converted into an electric car by the kaiser. And its not just a pleasure to drive it has tremendous range thats because the firm gets much more out of the batteries than the manufacturer lets take a look. This one. Guys will build their battery factory from the ground up the firms just three years old but car makers are already driving huge demand for their technology. But the battery like this contains five thousand cells what makes this system so special is the Connection Technology the individual cells are connected to each other and i know done but so you only get maximum power when theyre connected just exactly what makes it ingenious is how it minimizes electrical resistance because theres always a loss with each cell contact we have a special process for dealing with this resistance issue probably one of the best on the market ok we can get ten percent more capacity than most of our competitors who also use cylindrical cells. Thatll make electric vehicles more attractive and having more electric cars on the road could help Reach International climate targets by twenty fifty. But the great thing is todays Battery Technology gives us a solution we can implement now of course and see ten twenty thirty years will likely have Different Technology thats even better and requires fewer resources but we have to start now otherwise we wont get there by twenty fifth thats the main thing were concerned about because we want to be able to tell the next generation that at least we tried. Its ok here we go im so excited. Mockers kaiser and his brothers started as hobbyists just tinkering around in a garage they wanted to prove that any car can be transformed into an electric vehicle with the right Battery Technology and the project is organized weve kept the cars original seven speed dual clutch transmission electric motors been adapted so you can shift gears and its still really fun to accelerate. Into fear at about one hundred fifty and a six to two hundred and youre always in the optimal gear its a fun its fun but its also scary as a yeah its really sporty. Sounds like fun as well chris and that company that we just saw makes batteries that are ten percent more efficient than average batteries that amount to twenty kilometers more on a charge that some of the breakthrough is it i think is not about the twenty kilometers i think its about showing that more is possible for example these guys from austria they just built their company a couple of years ago and they dont have a huge factory they dont have like the best engineers in the world theyre just clever has a very vented a clever way to meet them thats what they did the Car Manufacturers the big ones theyre lining up right now to get hands on their technology and i think thats what we have seen so many times in europe is that sometimes its Small Companies its backyard mechanics and even students like in switzerland who are trying to drive the mobility in europe so you reckon you me youve seen a lot now youve done it last year across germany this year across europe is now the right time to bet on electric cars. I think the cars are getting cheaper and cheaper thats what it can see right now and with countries like u. K. And france announcing they want to ban petrol driven cars and diesel cars i think we will see more and more cars maybe even much sooner as we expected but the first generations of car drivers they say they they are very used to plug in their their cars at home but i think we need to total new infrastructure charging infrastructure especially so we need Public Parking lots where you can charge your car we need even charging spots at workplaces and maybe hotels feeders and train stations so it becomes much easier to to drive an electric car because you can easier charge your car a little to you i mean this kind of infrastructure the government needs to be involved Companies Like budget for example who i dont think we have some other stations and no i dont know so little this will take some time. It will take a lot of time i think and i think it will be a mixture of the government doing stuff and private companies doing stuff and well see it later that no way they really trying to change everything and theyre really fast and theyre really advanced so i think its doable but i think you need the customers to buy the cars are you any car convert now so we honest i never had a car in my whole life so theres nothing to convert from you know so i prefer riding my bicycle but i think if i would go for a car right now i think i would take maybe and within the next one or two years i would go for an electric one because its faster its greener and you can listen to your Favorite Music because its so quiet thats true thank you very much. Electric pioneer. And the next leg of their road trip begins with a sharp turn to the north to no way the scandinavian country is the final destination for good reason it has the most advanced infrastructure in europe and the capital oslo christian and you often climbed into the cockpit of a tesla took them on a long circular journey through stunning landscapes boss you wouldnt want to run out of juice up there in the mountains. We are now in norway and mistimed were driving a tesla. We have quite a challenge ahead to drive fifteen hundred kilometers crosscountry beginning with a trip to the mountains. Norway is ahead of its time one in five cars on the roads here are fully electric. The evening before we were in the capital where we picked up our rental car. Norway is one of the most important markets worldwide for american luxury carmaker tesla. We headed straight to a car park with dozens of charging stations we do range to meet peter hogg militant from norways electric Vehicle Association what do we have to do to get them over to indra well you know you have the pollute the pace principle in the car tax system if you buy a car with high emissions you have to pay a very high tax when you buy it but for say one machine cars there are several tax so this means that the cars are more off actually to buy. A similar polluting car both are very expensive to build up all the charging stations all over norway while an environmental policy is expensive and it especially when you are the first movers you have to try and i are to make it work. But if we can do something on the global level on climate issues then we really had a big effect for the money we spent. We contacted other electric vehicle drivers via the internet and arranged to talk to the house that family had a charging station. Theyre off on holiday to the low for ten islands a three thousand kilometer round trip its the first time theyve done this kind of distance in the electric car wouldnt it be so much easier for you to just take a guest room car. Theres a slow. Oh you stepped on the accelerator. Yes i did yes i was there fast theyre getting so much better now when youre in that its just a matter of time before you know you dont have any use for. Fossil fuels ok thanks to you have a safe trip of your family thank you but. We begin our ascend into the mountains the plan is to drive over norways famous can pass theres not a soul about and no charging station to be seen far and wide. The tesla has a range of three hundred fifty kilometers we wonder if that still applies when youre driving up steep hills. By the time you reach the top of the past the battery is half empty. Or. Anyone can go downhill all we have to do is roll and brake a lot and then well recoup lots of energy the unique thing about electric vehicles the regenerative braking system the battery shows one hundred eighty four kilometers left our destination is one hundred fifty seven kilometers away so we could make a perfect landing. But can we trust the g. P. S. Not everything it says is correct we suddenly find our path blocked by water. Luckily theres a ferry im almost out of juice and we still have a way to go it could get tight for. The next surprise because were driving aleck trick. We dont have to pay for the ferry. Finding the next charging station is always the big challenge when youre driving electric car tesla has set up its own network of charging points and were relying on battery but were not seeing anything yet when. The Battery Charges dropped to a critical level where is the next charging station. Give you i see it. With. A mountain pop i only have a few percent battery left hopefully the super charger will solve the problem of liam one hundred three parts of the roof. And there we go as a lot of good its gone green flogging itll take about an hour to charge because its almost empty we hardly had any Battery Power left at all im almost at zero what. On earth quantum on the i thought so in the meantime we could explore the place whats it called sun down there maybe theyll have a nice fish roll here fish which. Then its on to the city of bag and the last stage of our journey. No one has shown us the driving long distances with an electric vehicle can work weve course a glimpse of what the future could look like but many other countries will need to follow suit in the coming years. Europe does have enough pioneering engineers to make it work as weve discovered on our trip. So you know i guess i was it for you. Always great with you christiane even in italy italian that was a bit tricky the cars were small but in norway we had a great car and enough charging stations to offer products up on them as will be bought in other countries electro mabella he is still in the stone age and i stand side of it right here and all still need to get back to oslo lets go. And thats it for this edition of made in germany i hope you enjoyed the road trip into the future mobility as much as ill to reporters to see you next time thanks for watching bob. Entered the conflict zone confronting the powerful folks this week on the exam is in warsaw where the first government is facing mounting criticism from the e. U. Over its record on democracy and human rights my guest is the deputy Prime Minister matteo smar i. V. s this is government ready to address the concerns voiced by. Continue rejecting the first season thirty minutes for. Freedom of expression. Of ways has to be defended. Over the. Art of Freedom Freedom of art. A multimedia project about artists and their rights to express their views freely. To freedom. He tells us. It makes us laugh. And cry. Tremble and smile. Magical images and emotions that. Go. To every. You know. As you do every news coming to wander from far away that were praying for dozens of gravely ill people in one besieged syrian town an eight Year Old Girl named any will soon get the treatment that she urges