Āé¶¹ĪŽĀė°ę

News Digest Item
15 Aug 2017

Merkel signals support for eventual ban of combustion engine

SUPERillu / Phoenix / Āé¶¹ĪŽĀė°ę

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has voiced support for the idea of banning internal combustion engine cars sometime in the future, as planned by other European countries, such as France and the UK. ā€œI cannot name a specific date now, but the approach is right, because if we invest more in charging infrastructure and technology for e-cars fast, a general transition will structurally be possibleā€, she said in an interview with the German weekly magazine SUPERillu, to be published on 17 August. In a statement before the summer break, a federal government spokesperson had said that a ban on diesel or petrol cars was ā€œcurrently not on the agendaā€. In the interview, Merkel said that Germany would still need combustion engines for some time, but could only reach its ā€œambitious 2050 climate targetsā€ if the transport sector also emitted less COā‚‚. She said that modern diesel cars were needed in the meantime, as they emitted less COā‚‚ than petrol cars.
In a televised interview with public broadcaster Phoenix, Merkel said that the German car industry had to ā€œsee the writings on the wallā€ regarding the future of mobility. ā€œOtherwise, foreign companies will come one day and show how it’s done, how e-cars are made. I would like to avoid thatā€, she said. Asked about criticism of her absence from the first diesel summit in July, Merkel said she would attend the next meeting in autumn ā€œas chancellorā€ – if she was successful in the elections. Merkel, who is leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), also said that her party would not form a coalition with the Left Party or the Alternative for Germany (AfD) after the elections in September, explaining that ā€œapart from that we do not run coalition campaignsā€.

Find an article on the SUPERillu interview in German and watch the Phoenix interview in German . Find a Reuters article on the topic in English .

For background, read the Āé¶¹ĪŽĀė°ę factsheet The debate over an end to combustion engines in Germany.

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