Almost 20 years ago, German car manufacturers embarked on a large partly public funded experiment on the isle of Rügen to test electric vehicles. The results were rather sobering, mostly because the CO2 emissions were higher than those of comparable vehicles with conventional engines. Today there is a new hype for battery-powered electric vehicles, and due to a changed energy mix and continuously rising energy costs, it is likely that almost all car manufacturers will start series production within the next few years. In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Transport building and urban development department is investing 130 million Euros in eight sample regions in Germany to test and demonstrate all aspects of electric mobility. Their aim is to develop and test not only the electric cars, but also the required infrastructure. The University of Duisburg-Essen has joined with the car manufacturer Ford, the energy provider RheinEnergy and the city of Cologne for the project colognEmobil. The University is responsible for evaluation within the research project and for setting up simulation tools to extrapolate the results.