“Transport transition now”

The Dieselgate scandal at VW seems to have triggered a rethinking among German carmakers to place low-emission vehicles higher on their agenda, writes Thorsten Knuf in an opinion piece for the Frankfurter Rundschau. The government instead appears to be “largely unimpressed by millionfold customer fraud and polluted air in the cities,” writes Knuf. Instead of pushing for a reorientation in transport and industrial policy, the state subsidises polluting technologies with billions of euros, according to the author. But a transport transition would actually be in the interest of carmakers, if they do not want to end up like crisis-ridden utilities such as RWE, E.ON or others, Knuf states.

For background information on e-mobility in Germany, read the CLEW-Dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.