{"id":281266,"date":"2025-07-22T01:22:40","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281266\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T01:22:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T01:22:40","slug":"germanys-merz-slams-eu-plan-for-electric-only-rental-fleet-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/281266\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s Merz slams EU plan for electric-only rental fleet mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized a reported European Union draft plan that would require car rental companies and large corporations to purchase only electric vehicles starting in 2030, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News.az<\/a> reports citing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.investing.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investing<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters on Monday, Merz warned that such rigid specifications could contribute to destroying the automotive industry, which he described as one of Europe\u2019s core industries.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We must not allow it to be destroyed by focussing on technologies that might not be market-ready enough by a given date for one to rely exclusively on that single technology,&#8221; Merz said.<\/p>\n<p>The plan, first reported by German tabloid Bild Zeitung on Saturday, would affect corporate fleets that represent approximately 60% of new car sales, according to the publication, which cited anonymous EU sources.<\/p>\n<p>Merz argued that the proposals &#8220;completely miss the point of the current joint needs we have in Europe&#8221; and stated that Germany opposes such strict mandates.<\/p>\n<p>The Chancellor also emphasized that Europe needs to become more open, faster, and more dynamic, adding that he wants to help drive that change. He noted that Germany, which finances a quarter of the EU\u2019s budget, has a right to help shape the bloc\u2019s strategic direction.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News.Az<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized a reported European Union draft plan that would require car rental companies and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1699,1945,15439,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-281266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-german-chancellor","13":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114894270874320156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}