Carmakers "outbid each other" with bonuses / E.ON to raise dividend

It is still unclear if so-called “environmental bonuses” offered by German car manufacturers to customers switching away from an old diesel car would actually help protect the environment, writes Martin Gropp in an opinion piece for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. If customers used the high bonus to hand in their small passenger car and exchanged it for a much larger one, the fuel usage and emissions balance was not necessarily positive, writes Gropp. “The individual case will decide if the environmental bonus actually helps the environment.”

Read the opinion piece in German here.

Find background material on the carmakers’ fight for the top-spot in e-mobility in the dossier, and more on the diesel summit’s outcome in the CLEW article German carmakers pledge diesel software updates and buyer’s bonus.

Germany did “a fantastic job” working for climate protection at the G20 summit in Hamburg in July, said former US Vice President Al Gore in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD. “I admire Germany’s leadership,” said Gore. “Chancellor [Angela] Merkel raised a powerful voice for climate protection.” He said Germany, like all countries, was in a transition period, and every part of Europe had to do better. But he added that high levels of renewable energy, new models of electric cars and improved batteries showed they were on the right path. He was in Germany promoting his new film “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”.

Watch the video of the interview (in German) here.

For background, read the CLEW dossier G20 2017 - Climate and energy at the Hamburg summit.

German car suppliers which are largely still “firmly rooted in traditional car manufacturing” must quickly adapt to the electrification of transport and be willing to cooperate with competitors, or they will “fall by the wayside”, according to an analysis by consultancy Oliver Wyman. “With the increasing success of electric vehicles, value creation will shift to emerging countries” like China, said August Joas, head of the global automotive team at Oliver Wyman, in a press release. The German domestic market was only slowly developing, because the federal government showed consideration for the German traditional car industry in law making.

Read the press release in German here.

Find background in the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.

German utility Uniper’s CEO Klaus Schäfer does not see “the advantages of a big consolidation in the market” for his company, he said in a telephone conference when presenting first half year results, writes Helmut Bünder for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Uniper did not only “feel very comfortable in our autonomy, but also strong enough to independently face competition”, said Schäfer.

For background, read the CLEW dossier Utilities and the energy transition.