Germany isn’t content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country’s Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you’d have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it’s electric or running on a hydrogen fuel cell. This isn’t legally binding, but the Bundesrat is asking the European Commission to implement the ban across the European Union… and when German regulations tend to shape EU policy, there’s a chance that might happen.
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Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030
The council also wants the European Commission to review its taxation policies and their effect on the “stimulation of emission-free mobility.” Just what that means isn’t clear. It could involve stronger tax incentives for buying zero-emissions cars, but it could also involve eliminating tax breaks for diesel cars in EU states. Automakers are already worried that tougher emission standards could kill diesels — remove the low cost of ownership and it’d only hasten their demise.
Not that the public would necessarily be worried. Forbes notes that registrations of diesels, still mainstays of the European car market, dropped sharply in numerous EU countries in August. There’s a real possibility that Volkswagen’s emission cheating scandal is having a delayed effect on diesel sales. Combine that with larger zero-emissions incentives and the proposed combustion engine ban, and it might not take much for Europeans to go with electric or hydrogen the next time they go car shopping.
11 Comments on "Germany calls for a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030"
Roger on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 7:34 pm
Germany will be under Shria law by 2030…they love oil.
penury on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 9:28 pm
A ban on NEW combustion engines by 2030 will probably do a minimum of good, but even a minimum is more than the rest of the world apparently is willing to do. However, too little, too late.
Cloggie on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 9:43 pm
They will need to build a lot more offshore wind parks to make this measure meaningful.
Anonymous on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 9:49 pm
How about calling for a ban on cars-period? That would be game-changing. Calling for Hydrogen hoaxsters(lol sure), and EVs?, not so much. H2 hoax-mobiles are worse than oil-burners in every category, and EVs, may or may not be a (slightly) less worse than oil (YMMV).
Nothing much to see here. We’ve been passing all sorts of (non-binding) resolutions to make the world a better and\or safer and\or cleaner place for 50 years at least. Hows that working out for us?
JuanP on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 10:27 pm
If this had been done 40 years earlier it might have made a difference to humanity’s future. Unfortunately, it is too little too late. Back to transplanting my seedlings to bigger pots. I wish I could believe in a better future, but I am too much of a realist. I am too busy too worry much lately any way. All these articles and arguments seem less and less relevant with every passing day. I don’t know for how much longer I will keep posting comments here. It all seems so pointless!
makati1 on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 10:41 pm
JuanP, I agree. I am cutting down on my visits and comments. I have better things to do than try to educate the uneducatable. The people who comment here do give a good cross section of humanity. Especially the Western version. It is obvious why there is no hope for homo sapiens. Denial, brainwashing, and “hopey/feely” dreams seem to predominate. The few who are rational and see reality are being pushed out.
Boat on Sun, 9th Oct 2016 10:42 pm
A major decision by an major country that will impact the world. I would guess California will follow.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 10th Oct 2016 2:24 am
stupid liberal bullcrap.
I thought it was the country of Mercedes Benz
and the Autobahn. Nope, land of whining
liberals, cheap plastic battery cars, busy
giving away their country to muzlims.
Davy on Mon, 10th Oct 2016 5:51 am
Nice happy, optimistic, and transitional thinking. Let’s do away with internal combustion engines some German technocrat thinks. I like the idea of no cars but that is just fantasy of a different world of our ancestors. The reality is we are in a collapse process. The economy is sinking ever so slowly. Energy is depleting one day at a time while the bubble driven glut and oil state welfare schemes distort the true picture of supply destruction. This glut is demand destruction and a distorted debt bubble driven global oil market. Climate is in abrupt change. Meanwhile technocrats and greenweenines talk about electric cars as if progress were real.
The technocrats talk transitional because this represented as a clean technology which is rubbish. It is a fossil fuel extended and little more. We would likely be better off using less oil with what we have and in the end that would be cleaner instead of a dirty process of producing vast amounts of new infrastructure. Instead we want our cake and eat it. We want prosperity and clean. Real prosperity would be an enlightened people living locally on less speed and convenience and more hard work. That has likely been bred out of most of our rich populations. Besides there is too many people to go back to prosperity. There is only a die off ahead. Real prosperity would be more resilient and sustainable but we past that point because of population and modern conveniences that are now inconvenient in regards to survival.
The reality is as the economy sinks into a pseudo depression of wealth transfer and a decaying Ponzi of a corrupting society we will use what is at hand in a pre-salvage economy. This pre-salvage economy will be using what shakes out of demand destruction and is still available pre-entropic decay. Coal fired plants and internal combustion engines fit that bill. New productions of expensive electric vehicles and vast renewable energy sources with their expensive storage options and grid updates don’t. This is just a fact of life that when the economy declines less new stuff will be produced. Hand-me-downs will be utilized. Less activity will create a glut until the stuff is used up and wears out. Some places will do more in this process but we are near the end of the honeymoon of prosperity driven green change.
I really like my solar power. I want to get a PHEV because my lying German diesel Jetta has to be bought back because of a phony emission scandal. Anyway we are stuck with cars until the bitter end because without them we start starving. So anyone hoping for the end of cars is hoping for starvation. Anyone hoping for a green grid and electric car fleet has been watching too many “Jetsons” reruns. I am happy these German technocrats passed this law because it is better than more highways, sports stadiums, and skyscrapers. Any alternative energy production will be good salvage once we are in a true salvage based society.
Mark Ziegler on Mon, 10th Oct 2016 7:55 am
They will have to use a different type of fossil fuel.
Kenz300 on Mon, 10th Oct 2016 11:24 am
Electric cars, trucks, bicycles and mass transit are the future. Fossil fuel ICE cars are the past.
Think teen agers vs your grand father. cell phones vs land lines.
NO EMISSIONS. Climate change is real..
Save money. No stopping at gas stations. No oil changes. less overall maintenance.
No more wars for oil.