“In its current form, the combustion engine is obsolete.” So categorically, the new German transport minister, who has been in office since January, openly says that anyone buying a new car today should take this into account. However, the liberal Volker Wissing takes into account the possibility that combustion engines will continue to work after 2035, the date on which the European Commission wants them to be banned, as long as they run exclusively on synthetic fuels.
Wissing takes the metro to his office in Berlin every day and has a hybrid car in his home country, Rhineland-Palatinate, which he only uses on some weekends and almost always in electric mode. Its commitment to reducing CO2 emissions is undisputed, but the energy crisis facing Europe, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions hitting the sector, is now forcing us to act cautiously and reconsider that mobility needs are very being individual and different. “I want to be an advocate for better mobility for all, which means I will also be an advocate for cyclists, train drivers and public transport users,” Wissing said in a recent interview. He will do everything in his power to make Germany carbon neutral, “the sooner the better”, but he has also stated that “we want combustion engines to remain an option if they only run on synthetic fuels”. the reluctance that France and the Czech Republic have so far expressed against the total ban on this type of engine by 2035.
Wissing has also distanced himself from his own plans to significantly increase the purchase bonus for electric cars and add a scrapping bonus, saying in an interview with Deutschlandfunk that he is not “fighting for absurdly high financing” but rather a move to climate neutral mobility. using market incentives.
His turns are related to the internal opposition he finds both within his own Liberal Party (FDP) and among the partners that are part of Olaf Scholz’s “traffic light coalition”, in particular the Greens. The deputy leader of the FPD group, Carina Konrad, said that “it has not been for nothing that we have been able to propagate a cross-sectoral vision of the CO2 reduction targets in the coalition agreement. This makes it clear that there will be neither an economically and environmentally absurd scrapping premium nor a higher purchase premium”, suggesting that in order to achieve climate protection, independence from energy imports and a perspective for the auto industry in equal measure, market-based incentives From Los Verdes, the chairman of the Conference of Regional Ministers of Transport, Senator for Transport from Bremen Maike Schaefer, continues to demand a speed limit. “Speed limits of 100, 80 and 30 kilometers per hour on highways, rural roads and cities have more effect than purchase premiums and cost almost nothing,” he argues. In any case, Germany is reprogramming its stimulus policy in a context where it is not necessary for a car industry that has delivery problems and that it asks for a good one as soon as possible charging infrastructure for electric cars, especially in cities.
Both Wissing and Konrad are campaigning for ‘quick’ approval of synthetic fuels, so-called e-fuels. The use of renewable synthetic fuels is “essential to achieve climate goals in transport,” according to a federal government response to a request from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. This includes electronic fuels, which are produced using electricity from water and carbon dioxide. However, these fuels are especially suitable for “difficult to electrify” modes of transport. That is why the federal government wants to continue to support the research and market introduction of synthetic fuels in both aviation and ground vehicles. The main thing is “to enable climate-neutral flights in the future,” the document says, but the Federal Environment Ministry, which provided the answer on behalf of the government, can also envision e-fuels in cars or trucks on road traffic, although perhaps more marginal. The ministry notes that “for technical reasons, certain quantities of e-diesel and e-gasoline are always produced in the production of e-kerosene.” These could then, for example, “be used in sea or road traffic”.
The hidden costs of the electric car
Studies assume that the cost of electricity-based liquid fuels is currently at least €4.50 per liter of diesel equivalent, the German government said. Since electricity-based fuel production is currently limited to demonstration and pilot plants, costs are likely to exceed those of diesel and gasoline well into the 2030s.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
