The KU is expanding on e-mobility with its new mail delivery car. Two electric filling stations on the Eichstätt campus are already in use. At these stations, employees and students can recharge their
e-cars free of charge. A third electric filling station at the KU’s Ingolstadt location is currently being planned.
Before purchasing the new mail delivery car, the Facility Management team calculated how climate-friendly this means of transport actually is. The predecessor of the e-car had a gasoline engine which had a calculated energy need of approx. 11,000 kWh per year. For the same driving performance, the new e-car is expected to need approx. 3,000 kWh. This results in annual savings of approx. 3.3 tons of carbon dioxide. In this context it is important to mention that the University is exclusively supplied with green energy. An argument that has to be held against these CO2 savings are emissions produced during manufacturing of the battery. According to the Heidelberg-based ‘ifeu-institut’ which works for the German Federal Environment Agency, approx. 140 kilograms of CO2 equivalents per kilowatt hour of battery storage capacity are emitted. The KU mail delivery car has a battery with a storage capacity of 33 kWh, which means that for its production, 4.6 tons of CO2 were emitted. This means that after 16 months in use, the emissions caused during battery production will be compensated for. After this, the KU will reduce its CO2 emissions by more than three tons every year.