For the time being, at least.
It’s little secret that Germany prides itself on its thriving automotive industry, responsible for no less than 800,000 jobs across the various divisions and subdivisions that keep the European automotive hub going. However, following Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal that rocked the world and cost the company more than US$22-billion in fines and rectification work, Germany has found itself under increasing pressure of late to get its emissions under control.
A summit in Berlin concluded with the German government approving a fix with Daimler, BMW, Opel and Volkswagen that would see some 5-million diesel cars (with half of them Volkswagens) undergo a recall to update them with software that will reduce their real-world exhaust emissions by 25%-30%. This comes after a Stuttgart court decision last week that maintained the proposal to ban older diesel vehicles from the city, which also plays home to Mercedes-Benz and Porsche.
The German automotive industry association VDA said that the new engine management software that will be fitted to the affected Euro-5 and Euro-6 compliant cars will lower emissions as effectively as banning them from city centres, while still maintaining the efficiency and durability of the engines. Aside from that, BMW has gone the extra mile to offer a €2000 incentive should the owner of a Euro-4 compliant BMW want to trade up to a new diesel or electric BMW or Mini. Ford and Volkswagen, most notably, offer similar incentives.
While industry observers are calling this a stop-gap measure, it’s worth noting that the measures being made are merely an interim solution while technology catches up and eradicates internal-combustion engines altogether. The governments of both UK and France have ruled to ban the sale of pure internal-combustion vehicles by 2040, so it’s a little curious that Germany is insisting on keeping diesel alive for as long as it can. This may have something to do with how supportive the government is of the automotive industry, with Chancellor Angela Merkel having once complained to Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was then the Governor of California) about how strict the states’ emissions limits were and how it appeared to strangle the auto industry.
Within the government though, it isn’t unanimous. Horst Seehofer, the Bavarian chief minister, is proposing that the government provide financial incentives for people to trade in their old diesel cars for newer ones. However, German environment minister Barbara Hendricks opposes this, as she believes that the very automakers who've made the mess should be the ones cleaning it up, and not the government.
The revolt against diesels is largely attributed to Volkswagen and its wide-reaching Dieselgate scandal, which brought one of the biggest automotive conglomerates to task when US regulators discovered ‘defeat devices’ that were resulting in falsified results during emissions testing. Since the news broke, similar schemes and devices have been found in various cars across numerous models, and now poses an enormous threat to EU regulations and emissions targets. As a result, the favoured fuel of Europe contributed to less than 50% of total new car sales over the last year, the first time that oilers popularity dipped below 50% since the 1990s.
Stay tuned to CarShowroom, as we bring you updates as they come.
