Why is Friedrich Merz standing in his own way?
The crisis in the German automotive industry is obvious. It has slept through the electric mobility revolution for far too long. And in doing so, it has recklessly ceded the future to competitors from Tesla and China. Only now are German car executives saying unequivocally: ‘The future is electric.’
After all, the European Union decided years ago that no more petrol or diesel cars would be registered from 2035 onwards. Even Chancellor Merz now writes in a letter to EU President Ursula von der Leyen: ‘Electric mobility is the key technology of the future on the road to climate neutrality.’ So far, so good. But how serious is Merz himself about this statement?
In the same letter to the EU Commissioner, the Chancellor demands the exact opposite, namely that the EU should reconsider and soften its stance on the 2035 combustion engine ban. At the same time, he calls for ‘more flexibility and openness to technology’.
The Chancellor writes: ‘On the one hand, after 2035, in addition to purely battery-powered vehicles, cars with dual drive systems consisting of battery power and combustion engines should continue to be newly registered, provided that the remaining emissions in the automotive and fuel sectors are offset.’ He leaves open the question of how this will be offset. In addition, complementary transitional technologies such as plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), electric vehicles with range extenders (EREVs) and ‘highly efficient combustion engines’ would also have to be approved after 2035.
Dear Friedrich Merz: With these contradictions, you are not creating an ‘autumn of reforms’, but rather further years of uncertainty for the German and European automotive industry. With this zigzag course, you are harming car manufacturers, jeopardising their jobs and putting Germany’s climate targets at risk. Why, Mr Merz, are you once again standing in your own way?
The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: ‘Under the guise of competitiveness, he is shooting down climate protection in the EU.’
The local car industry has slept through the future of the car for long enough. As a result, millions of jobs are now at risk. But just as this important industry is waking up, the German Chancellor is shooting himself in the foot. German car manufacturers are in crisis precisely because they have relied on ‘efficient combustion engines’ for far too long, which Merz now wants to allow to be built and driven even longer than until 2035.
The Chancellor once vowed to ‘ward off harm from the German people’. But that is precisely the harm he is now causing with his outdated car policy. Paradoxically, he himself writes – and it bears repeating – that ‘electric mobility is the key technology of the future on the road to climate neutrality’.
Friedrich Merz, please stop telling us the fairy tale of the ‘highly efficient combustion engine’. All the experts tell us that combustion engines can hardly become any more efficient. Instead of spreading nostalgia, you should finally focus on sustainable policies.
The ‘highly efficient combustion engine’ will never exist. One litre of fuel pollutes approximately 10,000 litres of air. For at least 15 years, combustion engines and diesel engines have consumed an average of 7.4 litres per 100 kilometres. Even the apostles of combustion engine efficiency say that they are now at their wits’ end, just as even the Vatican is now at its wits’ end.
Source
Franz Alt 2025| Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
