Brussels, Munich market leader Daimler seeks the help of the Federal Government. In a letter to economics minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) asks the boss of Mercedes Benz Truck, Stefan Buchner, for assistance in the ongoing negotiations: “We would be very grateful if you advocate a compromise in the European Council, which also takes appropriate account of the prospects for our locations and the employees there,” Buchner writes in the letter from January 17, which is the Handelsblatt.
The Finance, Transport and Environment ministries also received mail from Stuttgart, co-signed by General Works Council Chairman Michael Brecht and the Policy Officer Eckart von Klaeden. In it they warn urgently against the business consequences the discussed specifications: “Winnings could be eliminated even with a small Zielverfehlung or even turn into losses,” it says in the letter.
It is Daimler’s third attempt. The responsible persons had already addressed letters to the politicians at the beginning of November and the beginning of December. The topic pushes the group. This is all the more so as the discussion in Brussels does not fit in with the Daimler desired direction developed. Both the Council of the Member States and the European Parliament recently advocated the Commission’s proposals of May to aggravate,
The Council of Environment Ministers calls for carbon emissions to be reduced by 15 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030. The parliament even advocates for minus 20 and minus 35 per cent, in each case in comparison to the base year 2019.
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The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, which currently accounts for a quarter of road transport emissions and six percent of total EU emissions. If a manufacturer misses his goals, he faces high fines. However, the specifications will be reviewed 2022 again.
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To pass the climate targets, the EU institutions must agree on a compromise. This so-called trilogue is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2019. However, the Federal Government has not been able to agree on a common position so far – the ministries involved continue to be cross-cutting. The discussions in Brussels are currently circling around the question of how the introduction of low-emission trucks can be accelerated.
MEPs want to give manufacturers a sales target: by 2025, five per cent and 2030 20 per cent of the trucks sold should be low in emissions in 2030, meaning that they emit less than half as much of the climate-damaging CO2. If companies fail to meet this quota, they have to save even more CO2; if they are above, they will be rewarded with discounts.
The Daimler managers criticize this in their letter as “unrealistically high quotas” – the cost-effectiveness of electric mobility in the transport sector is not yet foreseeable.
By contrast, the European Commission wanted to reward producers with a discount system for any low-emission truck with reductions in CO2 targets by 2030. The Council also prefers this system, but initially wants it only to run until 2025 and also exclude buses in the calculation. From the industry’s point of view, this is a heavy burden – after all, they are developing electric city buses, which are supposed to replace diesels in cities that are threatened by driving bans.
Trucks have to pay off
The Daimler managers complain about it, so that the savings target “in fact tightened by another 2.5 percent” – from 2026, the manufacturers would therefore not 15 but 17.5 percent CO2 reduction demonstrate. Therefore, the federal government may seek to preserve the bonus system by 2030, they demand.
But this argument drives climate protectors on the palm. The bonus system would actually reduce the savings targets to 12.5 percent, argues the alternative transport association Transport & Environment (T & E). If the system goes away, the manufacturers would have to prove a reduction of 15 percent by 2025, not by 17.5 percent. “Daimler is once again misleading politics,” criticizes T & E expert Stef Cornelis.
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The Group is desperately trying to delay the reduction in fuel consumption desired by its customers and the introduction of electrically powered trucks. In fact, quite a few logistics and retail groups have Unilever. Nestlé and Ikea for ambitious climate targets for the truck manufacturers.
Daimler, on the other hand, points out that it has reduced its heavy truck consumption by 22 percent over the past 20 years. However, the goals now being discussed meant a tripling to quadrupling of the efficiency gains achieved so far each year. However, this goes “far beyond the technically feasible and economically meaningful addition”. From the truck farmer’s point of view, 15 percent would be “ambitious in the next ten years, but still realistic”.
The further, the more expensive
In fact, the electric truck is a risk to the industry. Unlike in the car business, a truck must expect the buyer from the first minute. The established manufacturers like Daimler or the VWCorporation have avoided the entry so far.
In the business with electric delivery vans apparently too long: Because the post office of the industry did not get an affordable electric delivery van, she got on Aachen start-up “Streetscooter” and builds the vehicle now also for craftsmen.
Since then, Daimler has also been very active in the development of electric trucks with short routes. These “distribution services” are typical for retail delivery. A range of 200 kilometers is enough for most customers, said Martin Daum, CEO of the commercial vehicle business at the presentation of the “e-Actros” last year.
Daimler wants to bring him in 2021 in series. The electricity load should be more expensive to purchase, but cheaper to operate than conventional diesel, since the maintenance is much easier. For long-distance traffic with ranges of more than 400 kilometers remains Daimler-Nutzfahrzeugevorstand Daum but skeptical. “The longer the track, the more expensive the battery will be than the internal combustion engine for the foreseeable future.”