After weeks of intense negotiation agreed the Free Democrats, the Social Democrats and the Greens on their coalition program in Germany. The 178-page document mentions, among other things, raising the minimum wage, investment in the housing market and several climate policy goals. For the latter, of course, the anti-car Greens had a lot to say.
Although the Liberal Free Democrats failed to force speed limits on highways car fan However, agreements have been reached on the German car industry:
- the new government has committed to having around 15 million electric cars on German roads by 2030;
- they also aim to have 1 million filling points in Germany by 2030.
A big step for the world, even bigger for Germany
In Germany, the automotive industry is not only a lucrative economic sector, but also part of culture and identity. Because of its social significance, the topic is even like that cultural heritage it can also open up like the issue of gun possession in the United States, so it should be treated with extreme caution. But now the environment seems to have won.
The big German car brands could breathe a sigh of relief, with the government seemingly refraining from radical steps that would ban the production or sale of internal combustion engines. I want to increase the current 570,000 electric cars to 15 million and the 49,000 charging points to 1 million by 2030.
The 15 million target can only be achieved if new cars with internal combustion engines are no longer registered before 2030
Said the To Bloomberg Volker Quaschning is a professor of renewable energy systems at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. According to him, “it would be worth stopping the registration of petrol and diesel cars around 2028.”
In addition to the existing fleet emission regulations, the German government also proposes that only e-fueled vehicles should be registered.
Some are dissatisfied
Transport & Environment (T&E), one of Europe’s leading clean transport campaign groups, has been heavily criticized formulated regarding the government’s plans:
The new government wants you to 2030-ra 15 million electric cars would travel on German roads, however, this lags behind the T&E and Prognos Germany needs to meet its CO2 reduction targets for transport.
T&E highlighted that while the government can contribute to the use of e-fuel cars, they emit much more CO2 into the environment than battery-powered electric cars, and the production of e-fuel requires five times as much energy as direct electrification.
According to the campaign group, one of the most disappointing aspects of the agreement is maintaining the current contract for company cars: generous tax breaks for diesel and petrol company cars and that the government will raise the company car tax on electric vehicles from 0.25 per cent to 20 per cent from 2025. Company cars account for 63 percent of car sales and are largely fossil fueled.
In addition, Giulio Mattioli, a researcher in the Department of Transport Planning at the University of Dortmund, TU he addedthat there is not much content in the part of the coalition agreement concerning the sale of electric vehicles, as consumers must first be convinced.
Good news for Hungarians?
The Hungarian car industry is the driving force of the domestic economy, with car manufacturers such as Mercedes, Audi, Opel and Suzuki present. However, if that weren’t enough, it looks like we can look forward to more success in the future:
Central and Eastern Europe could be the big winner in the transformation of the German car industry,
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because it is possible to produce both of the technologies running in parallel in the medium term here – we learned from Gábor Várkonyi, a car market expert.
Within this, Hungary can benefit particularly well from the transforming car market, as battery production in recent years has improved investments thanks to which we have achieved such a high position in this field that after Germany and France we can be there as a battery-producing power.
If until now Slovakia was the champion of per capita car production, now Hungary could be the per capita of battery production
– said Gábor Várkonyi. “Our market advantage can only be further enhanced by the fact that the production of less moderate petrol or diesel cars, which Germany will no longer be able to accept due to political pressure, will most likely be relocated to our region,” the expert added.
(Cover image: Michael Gottschalk / Photothek / Getty Images)
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