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Utopian measures: EU ban on combustion engines from 2035


Mission accomplished, one can say with confidence. The Green Deal project has taken a decisive step forward. Last week, the European Parliament voted 339 votes to 249 with 24 abstentions to phase out petrol and diesel engines. The matter is not yet finally settled: the MEPs formally approved a legal text that establishes the mandate of the Parliament for further negotiations with the EU member states.

The parliamentarians are thus supporting the EU Commission's draft presented a year ago to achieve "emission-free mobility" in road traffic by 2035 - whatever that means. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid the foundation stone two years ago when she spectacularly announced the "European Green Deal" and threw out the sum of one trillion euros, which should be spent on "climate neutrality by 2050".

“Now it is clear that the future lies in electromobility. We have thus decided in favor of the future of Europe as an automotive location,” said Michael Bloss, climate policy spokesman for the Greens in the EU Parliament, after the vote. “The European Parliament rejects the emissions trading softened by the fossil lobby and alliance. Conservatives, liberals and rightists have been put in their place.”

In plain language, this means: Previous cars with petrol or diesel engines should no longer be registered from 2035. From then on, all newly registered cars must emit “zero emissions”. However, only the exhaust should be measured – the electric car doesn’t have one, so nothing comes out. The fact that the exhaust is only at the next power plant escapes this logic.

EU ban does not apply to trucks
So far, the planned ban applies to cars and light vans, trucks are not affected. The madness of an electric drive is too obvious here when corresponding trucks would have to have so heavy batteries that they could hardly transport any payload. For the car manufacturers, however, the decision is not bad news: They can continue their entire production to the acclaim of green society and relocate unions to cheaper countries and lay off most of the expensive workforce. In addition, they save considerable energy costs. This is good for share prices, but bad for employees and small and medium-sized suppliers, who cannot easily relocate.

The taxpayer, who has to pay for essential parts of the new infrastructure, is also a shambles. New low and medium voltage networks are at least necessary for a completely new charging infrastructure. For this purpose, an energy supply that has grown over a hundred years is thrown overboard.

Nobody can currently say where the electricity for industry, railways and private households will come from in the future - now millions of new electric cars are coming. Power outages are already increasing. Coal and nuclear power plants are shut down to green cheers as if on an assembly line. The only thing that is clear is that the sun and wind cannot supply the necessary quantities, especially not during calm periods and at night. There is not enough electrical energy to replace all of the almost 50 million motor vehicles in Germany.

Dependency increased
In terms of raw materials, the dependency on China, which supplies essential materials and usually produces them with high energy consumption, is increasing. It also remains unclear what will happen to the quantities of gasoline and diesel that the refineries continue to produce. Green politician Michael Bloss is nevertheless pleased: "The best electric cars of the future, including the latest batteries, will come from here. This is a turning point that we are now contesting. Anyone who still relies on the combustion engine harms industry and the climate and violates European law.” He may not be aware that battery factories are largely automated production facilities that themselves require a lot of energy.

The decisive cell chemistry comes mainly from China. The corresponding know-how is also available there. So Germany continues to depend on suppliers from the Far East.

And since so-called electromobility is not able to take over the transport performance of the current 50 million cars including the functioning infrastructure, there is only one solution: mobility must be drastically reduced. "The car should go" is not a new call. Five years ago, futurologist Stephan Rammler published the appropriate book “Volk ohne Wagen” (People with no Cars), which deals with how Germany is getting rid of the car.

Euro, EU or electric mobility?
Citizens should stay at home as much as possible. "Some of us will wake up one day in the not too distant future and realize we can't afford freedom of movement," said Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest automaker. As one of the few car company leaders, he railed loudly against the dogmatists who talk wildly and announce “irresponsible utopian measures”. As a European citizen, he urges everyone to "have a 360-degree view of the environmental problem and not just point at the car's exhaust."

TV darling Volker Quaschning, professor for regenerative energy systems at the University of Applied Sciences, sees things differently. “We have the technology and the financial means to achieve the climate goals. We just have to face it and act immediately. Our will decides.” His conclusion: In countries like Germany we should at least halve the number of cars per capita, as he explained to a magazine of the car manufacturer VW.

The European countries still have to agree to the decision of the EU Parliament in a further round of negotiations with the European Council. They have sometimes revised parliamentary decisions. So: mission accomplished? It could be the question of which is more likely to be destroyed: the euro, the EU or the new electromobility?

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