A chim Kampker has little of a crazy professor. The 41-year-old was initially laughed at for his idea and declared crazy. In the conference room of Streetscooter in Aachen, he sips with a boyish grin on his coffee and tells about how he became the managing director of the largest manufacturer of electric utility vehicles in Germany. A success story that has shaken up the car industry in this country.
In 2010, Achim Kampker, then a full-time professor at the Technical University in Aachen, together with his colleague Günther Schuh founded the Streetscooter GmbH. The production engineer wanted to prove that electric cars cheaper and faster to produce than all the major manufacturers claimed to date. “Professors like to say they are sitting in their academic ivory tower and have no idea about the practice,” explains Kampker. “We have proven that it can be done differently.” The Aachener unexpected help from a Dax group.
Visit by the Federal Chancellor
Several times, Post Board Member Jürgen Gerdes had asked the major car manufacturers and asked for a low-pollution and low-maintenance post bus to master the increasing volume of parcels. Because online commerce is booming. At weddings – just before Christmas – up to eight million parcels have to be delivered every day. And that, of course, best, without blowing more exhaust into the German city centers. But most of them waved off. Iveco, Mercedes and Renault offered only their standard models that they wanted to convert from diesel to electric drive – for a lot of money.
The International Motor Show 2011 brought the turning point: German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Achim Kampker and his small team and had the street scooter presented, which the research team had built in small numbers until then. Although the enthusiasm of the head of government was limited, but many media reported on their visit. One of these newspaper articles caught the attention of postal board member Gerdes and made contact. A close cooperation was the result, which in 2014 in a complete takeover of the street scooter by the post led. The Aachen inventors offered the first vans, which was fully electric. Other manufacturers such as Mercedes with the vans E-Vito move now, but will come in 2018 on the market. How is it possible that a small group of scientists is ahead of the seasoned auto industry?
“German engineers tend to do the hardest thing first,” says Achim Kampker. So searched people car, Mercedes and BMW for a solution for large numbers. “These manufacturers want to build a world car that can be sold anywhere,” says Kampker. The conditions for this are extremely difficult: One requirement is, for example, that such an electric car still drive without problems after eight weeks of standstill in the middle of icy Siberia. Such climate conditions do not exist in Germany. “Our street scooter does not travel in Siberia. We also do not export on a large scale, but our numbers are not enough, “says Kampker.