12 Oct 2018

To protect climate, we will need diesel cars even in ten years – VW CEO

Süddeutsche Zeitung

Unless Germany quickly phases out coal-fired power generation, diesel cars will continue to be better for the climate than e-cars, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess told the Süddeutsche Zeitung in an interview. For this reason, Germany will need diesel cars even ten years from now, said Diess. “It makes no sense at all to put electric vehicles on the road if we simultaneously produce electricity for them from lignite. Then we will be driving with coal instead of oil and produce more CO₂ than today.” Diess also criticised the European Parliament’s proposal to cut new passenger car emissions by 40 percent by 2030. This would mean that more than half of all vehicles would have to be powered purely by electricity by that year. “The transformation at this speed and with its consequences is hardly manageable” and would constitute “a painful revolution rather than a controllable transition”, said Diess.

Find the full interview (behind paywall) in German here.

For background, read the CLEW news item EU governments agree to cut car emissions faster than proposed by Germany.

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