Shortage of resources and ever stricter carbon dioxide regulations in combination with increased traffic and more and more urbanisation pose enormous challenges to the automotive industry and enhance the topic efficiency. Therefore the reduction of driving resistances is one important measure, but also the efficient transformation and storage of various forms of energy is highly relevant. Also, the source of energy has to be taken into account. Electric vehicles offer many solutions, but also the conventional and hybrid drivetrains show high potentials for maximising efficiency.

Thereby, the single energy consumers within a vehicle have to be considered. Focused thermal management can help to sustainably increase efficiency, enhance the subjective well-being and thus add to the driving experience. In addition, the use of driver assistance systems can help to plan driving time and route more efficiently. For sure, these tasks cannot be solved single-handed, but require to analyse the vehicle as part of its environment. Together with experts from other research areas, our departments research the complete system vehicle – traffic – environment, in order to find sustainable solutions for future mobility.