Dirty German diesel cars get new lease on life abroad

Germany is turning its back on diesel as car scrapping premiums encourage drivers to buy new models and get rid of their older, dirtier vehicles. However, instead of being scrapped, many diesel autos are being sold in eastern Europe and Africa, Sebastian Viehmann writes in Focus Online. According to the environmental organisation Transport & Environment (T&E), Bulgaria imported more than 100,000 used cars in 2017, among them some 35,000 diesel autos. More than a quarter of those came from Germany. T&E has expressed concern that while pollution levels in Germany have been falling for years, a paradoxical situation could arise in poorer European countries, where Germany and other wealthier EU states dispose of their dirty diesel cars. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in particular pose a severe risk to air quality in Eastern Europe, T&E stresses, saying that dangerous carcinogenic particulate matter from old diesel cars is already responsible for more than 13,000 deaths a year in Bulgaria.

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet "Dieselgate" - a timeline of Germany's car emissions fraud scandal and the CLEW article Court ruling opens door for diesel bans in German cities.