German opposition leaders have vowed to campaign against EU plans to phase out all petrol and diesel cars by 2035 as they stressed that their nation is a “car country”

by TheTelegraph

39 comments

  2. **The Telegraph’s Berlin Correspondent James Rothwell reports:**

    In its manifesto for the European parliament elections in June, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said that it was opposed to the phaseout of such cars as part of Brussels’ push towards a zero-emissions Europe.

    “We want to abolish the ban on combustion engines and preserve Germany’s cutting-edge combustion engine technology and develop it further in a technology-neutral way,” states a draft of the European elections manifesto seen by the news website Euractiv.

    That position has also been adopted by the Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of the CDU. The latter party was led by Angela Merkel, the former chancellor, from 2000 to 2018.

    Friedrich Merz, the CDU’s current leader, appears to be trying to win back voters who have drifted into the arms of the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party by supporting those who stand to lose out from ambitious green energy policies.

    Manfred Weber, a senior CSU politician, said that the decision was taken to reflect the fact that “Germany is a car country”.

    He said: “Not every country in the European Union is as strong a car country as Germany. That is why the specialisation, the level of detail of the programme, so to speak, has been deepened here even further.”

    Germany’s automotive industry employs more than 700,000 people and accounts for about 5 per cent of the country’s economy.

    **Read more:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/12/german-opposition-leaders-vow-to-fight-eu-car-ban-plans/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/12/german-opposition-leaders-vow-to-fight-eu-car-ban-plans/)

  4. Just another desperate prove that Germany running behind the competition. Bad management and political leadership lead to this, not people’s choice to buy a electric car

  7. There is nothing wrong with having economical petrol cars.

  9. Ah yes, I am sure clinging to the past will work now that China is beating the German (electric) automobile industry on every level

  10. OK, this might seem very out there, but what if Germany remains a car country but instead of fossil fuel car country it becomes an electric car country?

  11. Give me cheap electric cars and I’ll buy them. So far and in this economy we can’t afford them nor housing.
    If you want to reduce pollution find better ways to produce clean, specially energy. Germany put out nuclear plants to use fossils and want to ban diesel? Hypocritical.

  12. Tbh, EVs are not so good for usage outside of cities or in countries that are not as developed as Germany/France/other rich places. Hybrids are the way forward, the best of both worlds, everyone get what they want, all are happy.

  13. Internal combustion engines are going to be Germany’s new fax machines. They’ll still be produced and used decades after they’ve become obsolete because “that’s how things always were”.

  14. The conservatives have really been pushing their anti green agenda for months now. We have literal fascists in Parlament while the CDU/CSU calls the greens their greatest opponent. They go so far as blaming the new government for failures that they themselves have greatly contributed to. You can’t make that up. They’d rather feed the narrative of literal fascists than providing reasonable alternatives to the government. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things to criticize the current German government for, but polluting the political debate is the last thing we need. Right now, the conservatives throw a tamper tantrum because of fricking weed. Yeah, they do live in the 70s..

    German politics have become more of a shitshow as of lately.

  15. Maybe lead the innovation and tech race of the automotive industry, instead of stifling it for short term profits?

  16. EU elections are coming so right wingers pull corny theatrics as usual

  17. They can keep on making ICE cars, and look on as people abandon them in droves in order to buy electric cars.

  18. This discussion and the “No Speedlimit” is for a German like telling murricans that you plan to ban their guns.

  19. Meanwhile German carmakers are losing market shares due to chinese EV models being more competative.

  22. Lol, electric cars have much better profit margins after a few generations when knowledge and technology are gathered in a company. I am doubtful that this will be supported by the industry. Especially after many went all in on electromobility.

  23. And ~150 years ago it was a horse country. What point are they making?

  24. I don’t see how ICE vehicles will ever get phased out when electric vehicles are much more expensive and they’ll likely be banned from close carparks and garage.

    Good luck with the inevitable riots and revolts from the poors that will be fucked by those decisions.

  25. It doesn’t really matter *that much* even if Germany would overturn 2035, **pretty much every other major European country is considering local driving bans and eco-zones in major cities by 2035 at the latest**. Which are local/national policy and will be unaffected by the repealing of 2035.

    France, Spain and Belgium are forerunners in this regard, France has 11 eco-zones which is set to increase to 33 by 2025. Spain is set to have 149 and the three largest cities in Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp and Gent) all have eco-zones.

    Upcoming revisions of the EU Air Quality directives may also eventually force Germany to follow suit.

  26. LOL petrol and diesel cars will have phased themselves out WAY before 2035 anyway. EVs are close to price parity and with the current cost curve trend for batteries pretty soon EVs will be cheaper, even before accounting for cheaper “fuel” and service cost. The question is if Germany will still be in the race at all. At this point I would not bet on anyone but BMW surviving. It is a Kodak moment on a national scale.

  27. I automatically read “opposition leaders” as CDU/CSU and the FDP.

  28. Ahhh yes German conservatives.
    Proudly claiming the future won’t come for them if they just stick their heads in the sand deep enough! We know the pattern 👍

  31. if Deutschland wants to remain a car country then they’d better make the best damn electric cars this world has ever seen and if the opposition and the people supporting them can’t see that then I must say.. they’re idiots

  32. Manfred Weber is the absolute worst. He backs the far right in Spain, and I seriously think he’d make a coalition government with AfD given that he supports similar regimes in Spain Italy France or Finland

  33. We are a car country and we will go down as a car country. And down we will go

    I hate German boomer politics

  34. So, this is the new “Germans go against one trend” like nuclear before this?

  36. Or… German car manufacturers won’t be ready to go electric by that date.

  38. Germany’s industrial might is over. Just buy Chinese EVs and shut down the factories already.

  39. Good. This is an intelligent decision embedded in actual reality, instead of green ideology and EU technocracy.

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