Betting on electric cars cheaper for carmakers than sticking to diesel

The looming EU fines for excessive emissions after 2020 make it cheaper for the car industry to develop electric cars than to cling to the diesel, argues Markus Fasse in a commentary in the business daily Handelsblatt. In recent years, the car industry has made feeble advances in reducing emissions despite Germany’s massive diesel subsidies. In contrast, electric car sales will shelter the industry from EU fines that could easily reach billions of euros. Suggestions by VW CEO Matthias Müller that diesel subsidies should be cut show that “the German car industry adjusts to this new reality, and the slow but certain good-bye to the diesel is the result”. Fasse says the question of diesel fuel taxes will likely have to be addressed by the new government, even if politicians are lagging behind the industry in promoting the shift to electric mobility.

Read the commentary in German here.    

Find plenty of background in the dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.