“No planned economy!”

Diesel technology has long been hailed as a climate-friendly alternative to petrol but has suddenly come under intense fire, amounting to “a broadside against Germany’s leading industry,” Alfred Gaffal, president of Bavarian industry association vbw, writes in a guest article for Handelsblatt.  “Of course, reducing emissions as much as possible is an incontestable goal and in the best interests of people and the environment,” Gaffal says. But “sweeping driving bans” and abolishing diesel engines “are no solution”. Research into alternative engines ought to be supported, but “a quota for e-cars imposed by law” would be equivalent to “a planned economy” which could “not dissipate customers’ doubts and reservations,” Gaffal says. Individual measures like a quota are not helpful, he writes, arguing that meaningful climate protection requires a “comprehensive concept” to integrate clean electricity generation and electric mobility.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the CLEW interview “Diesel summit comes two years too late” with ICCT Europe director Peter Mock for more information.