Schulz calls for EU e-car quota / Need to increase offshore expansion
Social Democratic Party (SPD) / Süddeutsche Zeitung
Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor candidate Martin Schulz calls for a binding European e-mobility quota as a consequence of the diesel scandal, reports Peter Fahrenholz for Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ). “With a binding European e-mobility quota we will significantly increase the share of e-vehicles,” writes Schulz in a 5-point plan on the future of Germany’s automobile industry. The auto industry suffered a crisis of trust and faced the “biggest structural change in its history”. Schulz’s proposals:
- The measures agreed at the diesel summit needed to be implemented, and hardware updates should be made available to customers that could not afford a new car and thus were unable to use the buyer’s bonuses offered.
- Government oversight had to be improved, legal certainty strengthened, including the possibility of class-action lawsuits.
- Investments, innovations and framework conditions for sustainable mobility: This included ambitious CO₂ limits at EU level from 2020, a binding European e-mobility quota, and other measures.
- Industry policy for the future of mobility: Germany should invest in its own battery and battery cell production, the e-car charging infrastructure needed to be expanded faster, and research supported.
- Developing new integrated transport concepts.
Driving bans for diesel cars had to be avoided, writes Schulz. He calls for a second diesel summit in autumn to debate the next steps.
Read the article in German here, find the plan in German here, and a Deutsche Welle article on the topic in English here.
For background, read 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.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
German Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor candidate Martin Schulz’s call for a European e-mobility quota "seems like a shot from a blank gun”, writes Peter Fahrenholz in an opinion piece in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “As a Europe expert, Schulz knows only too well: An eternity will go by, before that happens,” writes Fahrenholz.
For background, read 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.
Greenpeace’s Andrée Böhling welcomed the call for a European e-mobility quota by SPD chancellor candidate Martin Schulz as “a right signal to manufacturers and consumers”, but criticises the lack of a date. “If the chancellor candidate is serious about climate protection, no combustion engines must be sold after 2025,” writes Böhling.
For background, read 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.
WirtschaftsWoche
German holding company Terra E needs 4 billion euros to construct a large battery cell factory that would create about 3,000 jobs, reports Angela Hennersdorf in WirtschaftsWoche. The location – to be decided in September – had to be “close to German carmakers”, so Germany was the most likely contender.
Read the article in German here.
For background, read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach
Fifty percent of Germans would not consider buying an electric car in the coming years, according to a representative survey by Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, commissioned by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Only 30 percent of respondents said they would consider buying one, writes Carsten Knop in an article in FAZ. The main reasons that kept Germans from switching to an e-car were the costs (33 percent), the lack of charging stations (21 percent) and the low range (20 percent). The interviews took place in June 2017, before cartel allegations surfaced.
Read the article in German here.
For background, read 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.
innogy / Handelsblatt
A decline in earnings in the Retail UK segment weighs heavily on German renewable energy company and RWE carve-out innogy, writes Jürgen Flauger in Handelsblatt. This was due to “fierce competition and tough regulation”, writes Flauger. For the first half of 2017, innogy posted adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of about 1.7 billion euros, an increase of 4 percent compared to the same period last year. “Business performance during the first half of the year developed in line with our outlook for fiscal 2017, which we can confirm at both a Group and a divisional level from today’s perspective,” said innogy CEO Peter Terium in a press release.
Read the Handelsblatt article in German here and the innogy press release in English here.
energy post
Europe needs to triple its current offshore wind installation rate to keep with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature increase to 1.5° Celsius, wrote consultancy Ecofys’s Michiel Müller in a guest article for energy post on 8 August. “Such growth in offshore wind cannot be realised through individual efforts—it is possible only through a new level of collaboration, coordination, and interconnectivity between the North Seas countries,” wrote Michiel. Current estimates indicated that “some 10 percent of the North Sea surface will be required for offshore wind, based on a wind farm intensity of 5-6 megawatt per square kilometre,” wrote Michiel.
Read the article in English here.
For background, read the CLEW article Citizens’ energy projects dominate first onshore wind power auction.
