the cars

Hildegard Mueller, head of the German Automobile Industry Association (VDA), said that the association expects the number of cars produced in Germany to increase by about 100,000 cars from its previous estimates, after the production of local factories increased in January and February.

She added to the German magazine “Automobil Fuchs” today, Sunday, that the association currently expects to manufacture approximately 3.79 million vehicles in Germany in 2023, an increase of 9% from last year, but the number is still much lower than the 4.66 million vehicles that were manufactured before the pandemic in 2019. According to what it quoted. Reuters.

Last Tuesday, European Union countries gave final approval to ban sales of new fossil-fuel cars from 2035, after Germany dropped its reservations.

The vote was a formality, after the ambassadors of the European Union countries, on Monday, endorsed the historic agreement, and the majority of the ministers of the European bloc countries agreed to the ban on Tuesday during a meeting in Brussels, and Poland was the only opposition, and Bulgaria, Italy and Romania abstained from voting.

The historic agreement to ban sales of new cars powered by fossil fuels, starting in 2035, is of great importance in terms of the bloc’s plan to transition to a “climate neutral” economy by 2050, with zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

But in an unprecedented move last month, Germany, the leading auto industry, blocked the agreement at the last minute after it was approved according to the traditional legislative mechanism of the European Union.

Berlin called on Brussels to provide guarantees that the law would allow the sale of new cars that rely on fuel combustion engines, provided they consume synthetic fuel, according to the agreement announced on Saturday.

The synthetic fuels that Germany wanted exempt from the ban are still being developed and produced using low-carbon electricity.

The technology is unproven, but German manufacturers hope it will lead to broader use of combustion engines.

Observers believe that domestic political calculations are behind Germany’s initial move to block the deal, which displeased some of Berlin’s European partners. (Arabic)