German Chancellery favours buyers‘ premium over diesel retrofitting

The German Chancellery and the transport ministry favour providing incentives to buy new and cleaner cars over retrofitting older diesel cars to comply with emissions limits in inner cities, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. According to sources close to the transport ministry, a “fleet renewal” is key to quickly achieving results in reducing air pollution and preventing diesel driving bans, the article says. The aim is to reportedly extend or even raise the buyers’ premium for replacing an old diesel car with a modern model. Germany’s designated transport minister Andreas Scheuer says the proposed blue badge for identifying clean diesel cars “is wrong and stands for driving bans”.

See what diesel driving bans would mean for Germany in CLEW’s Q&A.