Great joy at the preliminary awards ceremony in Berlin: Dr. Roland Welter, Vice President of the Overall Systems Clutches product line at Schaeffler, Matthias Krähling, VDA and sponsor for the category Automobility GreenTec Awards, Marco Voigt, Managing Director of the GreenTec Awards, and Moritz Baumann, Manager Marketing Audi City Berlin (left to right). Schaeffler leads the field in the automobility category. The supplier took first place for its E-Clutch at the environmental and business prize, the GreenTec Awards. Marco Voigt, Managing Director of the GreenTec Awards, explained why at the preliminary awards ceremony in Berlin. Schaeffler won over the high-ranking jury and scored comprehensively with regard to the selection criteria. The jury consists of 71 representatives from industry, sci-ence, industry associations and the media. In the automobility category, awards are presented to particularly innovative and environmentally-friendly technologies, which make the most convincing case in terms of weight reduction, optimization of fuel consumption, increasing the length of the life cycle, production and materials. The E-Clutch facilitates, for example, the functions start-stop and sailing in manual transmissions. This reduces CO2 emissions by 3 to 8 percent under real operating conditions. “There is a great deal of customer interest and it is important that we now put the system into volume production as soon as possible”, says Dr. Roland Welter, Vice President of the Overall Systems Clutches product line at Schaeffler in Bühl, Germany. If all goes to plan, Schaeffler would like to start production in 2018. A “thank you” to the team Welter was in Berlin to accept the prize. “It is simply fantastic that we can take this coveted environmental prize home”, he said and was visibly proud of the honor. He expressed particular thanks to the entire Schaeffler team. The main prize – the award ball made of olive wood – will be presented at the offi-cial gala on May 29, in Munich. The GreenTec Awards are taking place for the ninth time.