Are you ready to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine?? Ready to save and still protect the environment? then we welcome you to our new department for electric cars! Vehicles with purely electric drive in all sizes and variants are waiting for you here. To the model finder
Used electric cars: affordable models with power connection instead of fuel tank
They’re clean, they’re quiet and they’re cheap to run – electric cars are the answer to particulate pollution, engine noise and the eternal price rally at the gas pumps. Because instead of running on gasoline or diesel, electric cars run on electricity. Electric drive units work under their hoods, no internal combustion engines. This increases efficiency: electric cars like VW’s e-golf or BMW’s i3 waste less energy than their fuel-fueled siblings.
Thanks to the electric motor, e-cars from the nissan leaf to the B 250 e from mercedes-benz produce virtually no emissions, emitting neither CO2 nor nitrogen oxides. They also drive almost silently on highways and country roads. The big catch is the high purchase price. New cars often cost significantly more than their gasoline- or diesel-powered siblings. But electric cars are gradually conquering the used car market as well. Then you can save quite a bit of money by switching to an electric vehicle.
Our top models: the quiet stars among electric cars
You don’t necessarily have to drive a tesla model S to be able to drive purely electrically on the road in this country. In addition to the U.S. manufacturer – which offers high-end to luxurious sports cars and is now synonymous with e-cars – there are a number of less expensive alternatives. Japanese and French carmakers such as Nissan and Renault are at the forefront of the market. With the Renault Twizy, the latter offers one of the most unusual e-cars in the world. But even German manufacturers such as BMW and volkswagen are now producing electric cars with a decent range and fast charging – after a long start-up phase. We present some of the most popular models in this country with their technical data.
| vehicle class | compact car | small car | compact car | light vehicle | luxury class | smallest car | compact car |
| technical data | range: 199 to 250 km, maximum speed: 144 km/h, from 0 to 100 km/h: 11.5 s, engine power: 80 kw (109 hp) | range: 190 km, top speed: 150 km/h, 0 to 100 km/h: 7.2 s, engine output: 125 kw (170 hp) | range: 190 km, top speed: 140 km/h, 0 to 100 km/h: 10.4 s, engine output: 85 kw (115 hp) | range: 100 km, top speed: 80 km/h, from 0 to 45 km/h: 6.1 s, engine power: 13 kw (18 hp) | range: 335 to 550 km, top speed: 193 to 250 km/h, from 0 to 100 km/h: 3 to 6 s, engine power: 225 kw (306 hp) to 345 kw (469 hp) | range: 150 km, top speed: 130 km/h, 0 to 100 km/h: 15.9 s, engine output: 49 kw (67 hp) | range: 162 kilometers, top speed: 137 km/h, from 0 to 100 km/h: 11.4 s, engine output: 107 kw (145 hp) |
| special features | The battery can either be bought or rented. batteries available in different power levels (24 kwh or 30 kwh). Trunk capacity: 330 liters. | Room for four passengers, very light passenger cell made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), driving feel resembles an SUV due to the high center of gravity. Trunk capacity: 260 liters. | Both the interior and exterior design are typical golf, but only a look under the hood reveals the special nature of the drive system. Trunk capacity: 305 liters. | Space for two people to sit behind each other. battery is rented. Luggage capacity: 31 liters. | Several model variants with different battery capacities (60 to 90 kwh) and engine outputs, numerous assistance systems, space for 5 passengers, total trunk volume front and rear: 895 liters. | Technically identical to citroen C-zero and mitsubishi electric vehicle (formerly i-miev). Trunk capacity: 150 liters. | The trunk volume is only 220 liters. the reason: this is where the batteries are installed. |
Highlights from the history of the electric car
Even if elon musk, the boss of tesla motors, would like it to be otherwise: electric cars are not an invention of the turn of the millennium, even if they have only recently caused a furor. A look at automotive history shows that it wasn’t just the peugeot ion or its brothers, the Citroen C-zero and i-miev, that ran on electricity, but also the very first cars from 1880. the prerequisite for this was the development of practical electric motors by engineers such as hermann jacobi, thomas davenport and werner von siemens in the mid-1830s. The second factor: the further development of the lead-acid battery in 1859 by the french physicist and paleontologist gaston plante.
The first high phase of electromobility lasted from 1880 to 1910
It took around twenty years for the interaction between electric motors and plante batteries to prove itself on a large scale for the first time: in 1881, gustave trouve built the world’s first electric vehicle. After all, the three-wheeled vehicle had a top speed of about 12 kilometers per hour, which was roughly the same as the speed of a horse-drawn carriage. Over the next ten years, the electric car was continuously developed further, for example by the british william E. Ayrton and john perry and the u.s. andrew L. Riker and william morrison.Almost all of the first electric cars were three-wheeled models that resembled carriages. A quantum leap in design was then the racing car by camille jenatz. The Belgian racing driver christened his single-seater torpedo-shaped design "jamais contente" (translated: "never satisfied"). in 1899, jenatz also set a record with his racing car: it reached a top speed of 105 kilometers per hour! A year later, ferdinand porsche presented a prototype at the paris world exposition that was driven by two motors directly in the wheel hubs.
The first phase of electromobility reached its peak around 1900. Not least because the gasoline-powered models from carl benz, gottlieb daimler and others had a bad image: gasoline-powered cars were noisy, their exhaust fumes polluted the air, and the seats were considered uncomfortable. To refuel, you had to go to the pharmacy. It is therefore not surprising that after 1900, the majority of all vehicles worldwide were powered by electricity. Even fire engines ran on electricity. Electric cars were simply more practical, and there was a dense network of public charging stations in the cities.
After 1920, the electric car was threatened with extinction
But after that, the production of electric vehicles almost came to a standstill. The reasons were manifold: In 1911, the U.S. engineer charles F. Kettering the electric starter, so gasoline engines no longer had to be cranked up. In addition, the price of fuel fell dramatically after oil deposits were exploited professionally and on a large scale. In europe and the u.S., the service station network was expanded nationwide. Henry ford had his model T mass-produced, making cars affordable for blue- and white-collar workers. Last but not least, clever marketing ensured that gasoline-powered cars now promised greater automotive independence.It is true that the environmental movement of the 1970s was already recalling electromobility as an alternative to gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. But it was not until the mid-1990s that carmakers began to make serious new attempts to take up this trend. Volkswagen produced the golf citystromer. But due to lack of demand, production was discontinued after 120 vehicles. In the USA, general motors tried it in the compact class with the electric vehicle 1. Even the support of celebrities like tom hanks or mel gibson didn’t help. After around 1.After 100 units, GM scrapped all but three of the demonstration models.
Since 2000, a new generation of electric cars has been causing a furor
Since the turn of the millennium, electromobility has been gaining momentum again. For small cars with electric motors like the citysax, mass-produced vehicles from major manufacturers are being modified. Tesla introduced the roadster, an electrically powered sports car based on the lotus elise, in 2006. The company’s own developments, the luxurious model S and the model X SUV, have attracted worldwide attention. But the established carmakers are also catching up in terms of electromobility. The peugeot ion and the mitsubishi i-miev are the first electric cars in series production.
Now it’s coming thick and fast. Mercedes-benz first builds the smart with electric drive, followed by the B 250 e, a compact van. Citroen presents a berlingo with electric drive, renault produces several electric vehicles, including the futuristic twizy. With the i3, BMW is also selling an affordable electric car. Nissan builds the Leaf, the world’s most successful electric car. Even europe’s best-selling car, the VW golf, is now available as a purely electric variant. In short: electric cars are available in all sizes and vehicle classes.
Electric cars are coming – but not all problems have been solved yet
As exciting as electric cars are, the market as such is not yet under high voltage. Just 25.000 pure e-cars were on the road as of the reporting date 1.1.on german roads in 2016; since 2012, an average of just 6 electric cars per year have been sold.000 electrically powered vehicles registered. That is far too few to meet the German government’s self-imposed target of one million electric cars by 2020. The reasons are not surprising: the lithium-ion batteries are so heavy that an electric car weighs more than a diesel or gasoline vehicle. In addition, the range is limited. On average, you can drive just 200 kilometers in an electric car. Which brings us to problem number three: charging station infrastructure – popularly known as "charging stations" is still quite clear.In urban areas, it is already quite common to find publicly accessible charging stations, for example on the side of the road or in the parking lot of a fast food chain. But in rural areas in particular, nationwide coverage is not guaranteed. Some manufacturers, such as Tesla, have started to build their own stations. But these are available exclusively to the company’s own customers. After all, they represent the next development step in solving another problem: that of long charging times.
Some charging stations can charge the battery from 0 to 80 percent in half an hour. But 100 percent is not possible with the fast method. To achieve this, the electric car has to be plugged in for longer, including Tesla’s supercharger. The easiest way to do this is in a parking garage while you’re at the office – or at night via your home charging station. It takes 6 to 12 hours to fully charge the batteries. However, wall charging stations require some modifications, for example an industrial socket.Another disadvantage, which only affects new and not used electric cars, is that they are quite expensive compared to vehicles with gasoline or diesel engines, even the inexpensive models such as the Renault ZOE. It takes time for the lower maintenance and servicing costs to compensate for the higher price of a new car. To boost sales, the german federal government has therefore been supporting buyers of new electric cars since may 2016 with a mobility premium of 4.000 euros. However, the premium is capped in several ways: a total of only 1.2 billion euros is available, and the program ends in 2019 at the latest. In addition, luxury electric cars such as the model S from tesla do not receive a subsidy because their replacement value is over 60.000 euro. If you still want to drive electrically at a reasonable price, you should therefore look around on the used car market. Here, the range of electric cars is growing continuously.
In the table below you will find examples of electric car models and their different charging power, charging time and battery size.