Cheap electric cars, Tesla's cyber truck and cycling truck drivers: these are our mobility tops of the year

"Change of perspective" campaign for truckers and cyclists

Lena Frommeyer

Cyclists have an accident every year because they are hit by turning trucks. There are turning assistants who can prevent these accidents, but these systems should only be mandatory in Europe from 2022. In addition, they only treat a symptom of a sickly infrastructure. It is all the more important that both cyclists and truck drivers are made aware of one another. This happens in Hamburg, for example, with the "Change of Perspective" campaign. On a bicycle tour from accident point to accident point, professional drivers experience how to drive on two wheels in city traffic without a crumple zone . Before that, cyclists can climb into the cabin of a truck and determine how much road space remains invisible despite the many mirrors. Two shipping companies took part in the summer, from the management to the driver, and various members of the General German Bicycle Club (ADFC). The exchange was undogmatic and on an equal footing. The action, which takes place far too rarely and would have to be publicly funded, shows how valuable encounters are.

By Lena Frommeyer

Design of the Tesla cyber truck

ZUMA Press / imago images

Edgy, aggressive, extremely futuristic: The design of the Tesla Cybertruck polarizes. Some found it brave, others simply ugly. It doesn't matter if you like the strange cross between Hummer and DeLorean - but all manufacturers should take an example from it. Because with the Cybertruck, Tesla is making an optical U-turn. As much as the California-based company has so far been driving the established manufacturers in e-mobility, the design language of the cars was boring and conservative: long hood, clearly set pavilion for the occupants and a coupé-like sloping rear. The electric drive offers the best chance to say goodbye to these familiar shapes and to create completely different body shapes based on the skateboard-shaped platform with batteries and motors. With the Cybertruck, Tesla is venturing into new shapes for the first time and is mixing up the most important segment of the US market on the design front. Let's hope that the competition follows this example.

By Emil Nefzger

The speech at the IAA that was not delivered

Simon Hofmann / Bongarts / Getty Images

A speech at this year's IAA caused a sensation that was never delivered. Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD), known for his critical attitude towards the auto industry, had prepared warning words. But the trade fair organizer VDA abruptly canceled its appearance. Official reason: lack of time. It is more likely that the VDA wanted to avoid a scandal. Feldmann nevertheless published the speech and found words of praise for the climate activists from Fridays for Future. "As Mayor, I am grateful to everyone who takes part in demonstrations," says the manuscript. This commitment is not naive, but is urgently necessary and a great opportunity. The OB also criticized the controversial SUV trend and asked the industry to rethink. "Frankfurt needs more buses and trains, but not more SUVs." It would take a mobility turnaround to stop climate change, said Feldmann. There were hardly any such clear political commitments in terms of mobility and sustainability this year. So please more of it for 2020. Then maybe it will be something with the mobility turnaround.

By Christian Frahm

New small car concepts

Opel

Opel Adam S

Small cars are cheaper than big ones, so they make less profit. Some manufacturers would therefore prefer to abolish small cars altogether. VW boss Herbert Diess, for example, claims that a car kid like the VW Up will be around 3500 euros more expensive in the future due to additional exhaust gas cleaning systems and is "thus dead". Opel stopped the Adam and Karl models, Ford the Ka type . So far, the topic has been a flop - but there is also much more encouraging news: For example, from Toyota, which announces a new, light, variable and technically simplified small car platform. "The small car is dead," whine some - "Long live the small car," cheer the others. The second solution is certainly the more sensible one, because usually smaller cars not only mean lower acquisition costs, but also lower consumption values ​​and a smaller space requirement. The courage for new small car concepts can therefore achieve great things.

By Jürgen Pander

Renault K-ZE

Thomas Geiger

Most electric cars are still far too expensive. Renault shows us how to do it differently. Even before Mini and Smart had their next electric vehicles developed and built in China, the French and Dongfeng had already put the K-ZE on the wheels there - in accordance with western standards and at a Chinese price of less than 10,000 euros , And that's a word for a neat four-seater with a range of around 270 kilometers, which at just 3.74 meters in length offers significantly more space than in a Renault Twingo, for example. Now Renault wants to prove that something like this also works for us and bring the tiny one as a Dacia to Europe. Even if it gets a little more expensive on the way west, it actually has what it takes to roll up the market from below. The 120,000 cars that can be produced in Wuhan per year should then be almost a bit tight.

By Thomas Geiger

Opel Corsa

Opel

Opel Corsa

A certain respect has to be paid to the designers and engineers of the Corsa . After all, "their" version of the new, small Opel was almost completely developed when the French PSA group brought the brand under its roof and called for a completely new development. All the more remarkable in which record time a new Corsa was put on the wheels in Rüsselsheim. Okay - platform, motors and transmissions ready for series production by the French, the same technology is used for example under the sister model Peugeot 208 . Nevertheless, a completely new "hat" had to be conjured up on this basis. And design chief Mark Adams did a great job. A Corsa has never been more stylish and proportioned, but it has never been safer, more comfortable and more luxurious. But the best for last: Opel's smallest can be ordered as a petrol, diesel and electric drive. That has never happened before.

By Michael Specht

Yamaha Ténéré 700

Yamaha

It looks light and airy, modern - nevertheless, the Yamaha Ténéré 700 is refreshingly old-fashioned for a motorcycle from the 2019 model year. No cornering ABS, no driving modes, no traction control, no quick shifter, no colored TFT display, no joystick on the handlebar and certainly no "connectivity". Navigation, telephone, music in the cockpit: none. But the mid-range enduro with 73 hp can do pretty much everything a motorcycle needs to do. On the asphalt, she easily keeps up with a sport or naked bike from the same horsepower class with her two-cylinder engine, good torque and top-of-the-range chassis. It is optimally prepared for dusty dirt roads and demanding terrain: ABS can be switched off at the push of a button, long suspension travel, good standing position, solid underride protection. The price-performance ratio is also right. For € 9,599.00 there is currently no better overall package in this all-rounder class. The new T7 - ​​the best Ténéré that Yamaha has ever built.

By Jochen Vorfelder

Pedal duel of the year - Terminator meets Conservator

Guglielmo Mangiapane / REUTERS

What a picture: the dainty Greta next to the handsome Arnie. He is now 72 and feels four times the size of the 16-year-old Swede. Like a Gulliver next to a Swift Liliputan, Schwarzenegger and Thunberg cycled through Santa Monica in autumn in the name of environmental and climate protection. A lot of mendacity was interpreted in this and other meetings of Thunberg with Hollywood stars, whose carbon footprint is often not the best. As always, she looked grumpily into the cameras, his teeth bared, as if he were still on the terminator set. The two side by side in the saddle, that was pure dialectic. You could just call it willingness to engage in dialogue. Not bad if terminators and conservators can talk to each other these days. For me the bike tour of the year.

By Stefan Weißenborn

Police want to target cell phone sinners

Deutzmann / imago images

In the past, only pilots got into a blind flight, but today, too, Germany's motorists are out and about without a view: because they don't give up their smartphone at the wheel themselves. Just unlocking the device (approx. 4 seconds) leads to a 56 meter blind drive in city traffic. Anyone typing an SMS (approx. 18 seconds) travels 252 meters as if blindfolded. The risk of accidents is enormous: an estimated one third of all accidents are caused by distracted drivers. It would therefore make sense to monitor accidents due to cell phone use more closely. So far, however, the list of causes of accidents has not provided any distraction as the cause of the accident. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft Verkehrspolizeilicheiche (AG VPA), a committee of the interior ministries, now wants to change this nationwide. At least the police could then correctly document the accidents. Alone, the witnesses are often missing for the conviction of cell phone sinners.

By Haiko Prengel

The GP Joule "eFarm" project

Hauke-Christi / picture alliance

With the "eFarm" , the company GP Joule, specializing in renewable energies, shows what is possible - if you only implement it. Because instead of just talking about the energy transition, the company from North Friesland is introducing it, at least regionally. The goal: a 100 percent emission-free hydrogen infrastructure. The principle: The green electricity obtained from wind turbines is converted into hydrogen and ends up at the two new hydrogen filling stations in Husum and Niebüll - and from there not only in the new hydrogen regular-service buses, but also in the tanks of hydrogen cars from the region , There were already 60 expressions of interest at the start. It can be that easy! Wind turns into electricity. And while everyone is talking about the cordless car, GP Joule ensures that other technologies are also developed further. Others already made the mistake of relying only on one form of drive.

By Matthias Kriegel

Motorsport in an alternative way

Motorsport Images / imago images

The pressure to justify for motorsport fans has increased steadily in recent years. Not only environmentalists questioned the meaning of such events. In the meantime, there is hope again for racing enthusiasts. And this hope bears the name Formula E. It is equally interesting for car manufacturers and motorsport enthusiasts. Engineers can develop technologies on the racetrack that may later benefit from electric cars on the road. And for the first time in the new season that has been running since November, fans can see the four German brands competing against each other in an international racing series: Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche. Particularly interesting for German fans: Because Formula 1 will not be in Germany next year, the Formula E race in Berlin next June is the only Formula race on German soil.

By Martin Wittler

Seat Mii electric - finally an affordable electric car

SEAT

Electric cars are only for the wealthy? The Seat Mii electric and its siblings Skoda Citigo and VW e-up finally refute this thesis. They are the first battery-powered cars that have a reasonably acceptable range (200 to 300 kilometers) and are still affordable: If the government purchase premium is increased to 6,000 euros as planned, the Mii, the cheapest of the three small cars, will cost drivers just over 14,000 euros , There are comparable cars with combustion engines for less money. But because the operation of an electric car is cheaper, the premium pays off according to ADAC. Even as long as the old purchase bonus of just 4000 euros still applies. Commuters who drive 15,000 kilometers or more a year get cheaper in the Elektro-Mii than in a comparable petrol-up. Driving an electric car can now be very cheap - this good news has been lost in 2019 in the wake of the SUV boom, IAA protests and cybertruck.

By Nil's concern

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