Bosch chairman calls Stuttgart driving bans “disastrous” economic policy

The regional government’s decision to ban older diesel cars from Stuttgart city centre on days with bad air from next year is “ill-advised”, “disastrous” economic policy, and its environmental benefits “questionable,” according to Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of Bosch, the world’s largest supplier of diesel technology. In a letter to Green state premier Winfried Kretschmann, whom he advises on economic policy, Fehrenbach writes the ban “does not improve particulate matter, will cause the end of the cleanest Euro-6 [diesel] engine, and ignores CO₂ emissions, which are most dangerous for climate change,” according to a report in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which has seen the letter. Fehrenbach, who takes the subject of sustainability very seriously according to the report, adds the ban labels the diesel as a scapegoat, writes Rüdiger Soldt.

Find first reactions to the driving ban in last week’s news digest.

For background, read the CLEW dossiers The Energiewende and German carmakers and The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector.