Ahead of the car summit convened by Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on Monday, various voices are speaking out with suggestions as to how the ailing automotive industry could be given a helping hand. The increasingly poor sales figures for e-cars and the politically desired move away from the internal combustion engine require the automobile companies to make high investments and at the same time have low incomes. The sluggish business in the large export market of China is also affecting companies. Last Thursday, Habeck himself indicated that the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony were thinking about providing support to the ailing VW Group. “The company is of central importance for Germany,” said the minister on Thursday in Papenburg. He did not name any specific measures at this point in time. A proposal for this comes from the opposition in the Bundestag today: The chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag’s Transport Committee, Christoph Ploß (CDU), told the Düsseldorf “Rheinischen Post” (Monday edition): “We expect as CDU/CSU faction that the federal government is committed to finally stopping the ban on the internal combustion engine.” “More social market economy instead of more and more planned economy” Ploß called for a signal for “openness to technology” and criticized the “purely ideological orientation of the traffic light coalition Battery cars” as outdated. Robert Habeck must realize that “we need more of a social market economy in Germany instead of more and more of a planned economy.” The FDP also spoke out against further subsidies. The deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Christoph Meyer advocated “structural reforms from which the entire economy benefits”. In order to display external content, your revocable consent is required. Personal data from third-party platforms (possibly USA) may be processed. More information. Activate external contentIn contrast to Ploß and Meyer, parts of the traffic light coalition are calling for the switch to electric cars to be pushed further. On Saturday, the magazine “Stern” made public plans from a paper by the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, according to which a premium would be paid for switching from a combustion engine to an electric car: 6,000 euros for a new one, 3,000 euros for a used one .SPD and IG Metall call for funding packages “We are convinced that electric cars are the future,” write the MPs in the paper. Further proposals in the paper include a state surcharge for e-car leasing for people with small or medium incomes and funding for private charging boxes, storage systems and charging stations. The IG Metall union joins the chorus of the SPD MPs calls for a funding package for electric cars. What is needed is a “quick, new funding package that will boost sales of electric cars,” a union spokesman told “Bild am Sonntag”. “That would help the manufacturers and suppliers who have already invested billions in e-mobility and thus secure jobs.” The union also hopes that such a funding package would give German manufacturers “new impetus in the race with non-European manufacturers.” . The spokesman further told the newspaper: “It would be both an economic stimulus program and an industrial policy fitness injection for the necessary restructuring of the automobile industry.” Economists see problems not only with money. The German Economic Institute (IW) is holding a new electric car premium for sensible. “But it will only have a noticeable benefit if we succeed in expanding the potential buyer group,” said IW expert Thomas Puls. The utility value of electric cars must be increased for people who do not have their own charging facility. The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, believes subsidies for individual companies or for energy are a wrong move. “These only help individual companies and not the entire economy.” The main responsibility for the difficult situation in the automotive industry lies with the companies themselves, not with politicians, he told the Funke media group.More on the topicIn Fratzscher’s view, the auto industry has three big ones Mistakes made: “You destroyed a lot of trust and reputation with the diesel fraud. They have become far too dependent on China and have thereby made themselves vulnerable to blackmail. And they missed the technological transformation to e-mobility.”EU requirements exceeded the target?At the EU level, the faltering of the automotive industry is also viewed with concern. The chairman of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, is calling for impending fines from car manufacturers to be suspended as part of the planned stricter fleet requirements for CO₂ emissions. “If tens of thousands of jobs are shaky, then there is no time for fines,” Weber told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. He also suggested that an examination of the EU guidelines and environmental regulations for the automotive industry should be put to the test. Some of them may have overshot the mark. The EU wants to gradually tighten the so-called fleet targets for the emission of climate-damaging carbon dioxide (CO₂). The current average of 115.1 grams of CO₂ emissions per kilometer and vehicle is expected to fall to 93.6 grams in 2025 and to 49.5 grams in 2030. If too much CO₂ is emitted, manufacturers face fines. The car summit is scheduled to take place online on Monday. The largest German automobile manufacturers and suppliers, the VDA and IG Metall, are expected to take part in the conference.
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