Germany forms alliance against phasing out internal combustion engines

Division among the major European Union countries. Germany will not participate in the ban on internal combustion engines from 2035.

Germany has formed an alliance with Italy and several Eastern European countries to oppose the European Union’s plan to phase out internal combustion engines from 2035.

Transport ministers from Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia recently met in Strasbourg, France, to discuss changes to EU plans.

– German Transport Minister Volker Wessing, according to Reuters, said after the meeting that the proposal should be changed as soon as possible.

Germany’s transport minister has stated that the group of countries wants a separate class of internal combustion engine cars that can run on carbon-neutral synthetic fuels after 2035.

He said that a ban on internal combustion engines, when they can be operated in a climate-neutral manner, seems to us to be the wrong approach.

Goodbye

The legislation is a key part of the EU’s transition to electric cars and thus CO2 neutrality. But the EU’s largest country is divided. France and Spain are among the European Union countries that want to say goodbye to combustion engines from 2035.

France and Spain are both car producing countries. They now stand shoulder to shoulder with smaller countries like Denmark, which have already committed to reducing CO2 emissions from passenger cars.

– We are ready to fight for it. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire recently told France Info that postponing would be an environmental mistake, and I think it’s also an economic mistake.

The statement came before the meeting in Strasbourg, where no French minister was present.

Sources: Reuters / France Info