The influential group, which will be connected to the video meeting this Wednesday from the Chancellery, can expect a few critical comments. If, for example, VW boss Herbert Diess reports on his practical experience behind the wheel of an electric car while on vacation, it should be uncomfortable. At the beginning of August he was already complaining about social networks from Trento, Italy, where he paused with his ID.3 on the way to Lake Garda. “No toilet, no coffee, one column out of order / defective, sad affair,” complained Diess. And in Germany, too, things are hardly looking better in many places.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has called her ministers Andreas Scheuer, Economics Minister Peter Altmaier, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, car managers, trade unionists and scientists virtually together for the last car summit of their term of office this Wednesday at 10.30 a.m. Right at the top of the agenda: charging the e-cars. After a welcome and an introduction, the Top 2 will be about the “charging infrastructure”. Further topics: Autonomous driving, the handling of data in mobility, the effect of purchase premiums for e-cars.
“Andi, how much longer will that take?”
At a car summit in autumn, Scheuer had to put up with critical questions about the expansion of the charging network for e-cars. “Andi, how much longer will it take?” Asked the Chancellor. This time, Scheuer is building ahead and said on Tuesday that the government would provide a total of 500 million euros by the end of 2025 for the further development of the public charging infrastructure in Germany. The aim is to set up a total of at least 50,000 charging points. It should be possible to apply for funding from the end of the month. “Loading must be the new refueling,” said Scheuer. “Citizens should be able to charge their e-car anytime and anywhere – at the supermarket, on the roadside, at the restaurant or sports field.” Anything else would also be surprising. According to government advisors, around a third of vehicles in Germany – a total of 14 million cars – will have to be electric by 2030. This is the only way to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector as planned. Four out of five newly registered vehicles are expected to run on electricity by the end of the decade.
That’s not enough for environmentalists. They are calling for faster government resolutions before the summit. The NABU warned that they must campaign at the auto summit to prevent further combustion engines from being allowed after 2030. “If we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2030 in accordance with the new climate targets, traffic must make a larger contribution from today,” said Federal Managing Director Leif Miller. Politicians must set corresponding binding reduction targets for industry. Most recently, the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had emphasized that massive action must be taken by 2030 in order to limit man-made global warming to the critical limit of 1.5 degrees.