“Let diesel run”

In an opinion piece for Die Welt, Nikolaus Doll says Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller was wrong to attack tax breaks for diesel cars in hope of promoting e-cars. Abandoning diesel in favour of e-cars will not save VW, or take pressure off the wider industry, Doll writes. Those who oppose diesel based on its environmental impacts “ultimately want a car-free city, a country in which your own car and individual mobility are the exception”, Doll argues. Once again, Germany wants to do away with technology “without having an adequate substitute” he says, warning that once diesel is gone, environmentalists will go after petrol engines. As long as there are no clear mechanisms to produce clean batteries for e-cars, “we should let diesel run”, Doll writes.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet The debate over an end to combustion engines in Germany for background.