German car industry states jointly push climate-friendly mobility, criticise government

The German states home to carmakers VW, Daimler, BMW, Audi and Porsche, as well as to countless suppliers, have agreed an “intensive cooperation” to ensure that the “car of the future rolls off a conveyor belt in Germany.” Baden-Württemberg (Daimler and Porsche), Bavaria (BMW, Audi) and Lower Saxony (VW) said in a position paper they want to work jointly on a charging infrastructure, training, research, new mobility pilot projects, and other initiatives to support the shift to climate-friendly mobility. The three state premiers said “too much time has been wasted, and too many targets missed, on the federal level. Wait-and-see is no longer an option.”
Bavarian state premier Markus Söder (Conservative CSU), Baden-Württemberg premier Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) and Lower Saxony Social Democrat (SPD) premier Stephan Weil called on the federal government to boost the transition with regulatory changes to push e-mobility and autonomous cars, support programmes for affected companies, and research initiatives. “We are united in the desire to ensure this new era in the car industry will be a success story – for the people, our companies, and the climate,” said Söder.

Germany has not managed to lower emissions in the transport sector at all, but is supposed to cut its transport emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. Conservative federal transport minister Andreas Scheuer has been widely criticised for not doing enough to facilitate the transition to green mobility, and has also been blamed for the failure of the country’s transport commission to agree on sufficient measures to cut traffic emission earlier this year.