“Merkel’s ‘no’ to an e-car quota is not enough“

Rejecting a European quota for electric vehicles by simply denouncing the idea as “not well thought out” is an inadequate answer by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Antje Sirleschtov writes in a commentary for Tagesspiegel. There were indeed many reasons to believe that China’s approach of enforcing a quota to phase out combustion engines “is not the best way for Europe”, Sirleschtov argues. “But Schulz nevertheless has put one of the most important topics for Germany’s future on the agenda,” she says. Every party should come up with a concept for the future of German mobility at September’s election and let voters decide on it, “but simply saying ‘no’ is not enough,” she writes.

Read the commentary in German here.

See the CLEW dossier Vote2017 – German elections and the Energiewende, the CLEW article German carmakers pledge diesel software updates and buyer’s bonus and the factsheet The debate over an end to combustion engines in Germany for background.