Fight against driving bans: Taxpayers to finance retrofitting for diesel

02/16/2018

Fight against driving bans Diesel retrofits are apparently to be paid from tax money

DPA

Traffic in Dusseldorf

The discussed hardware retrofits for older diesel cars are to be promoted according to media reports also with state money. But the plans encounter resistance.

Owners of diesel cars should possibly be moved with taxpayers to reduce the nitrogen oxide emissions of their vehicles. As the “Southgerman newspaper“(” SZ “) and the Bavarian Radio citing the draft of a final report to the federal government, government experts propose to promote the retrofitting “in full or to the maximum extent possible”.

The funding could “in addition to public funds from the financial contributions of carmakers dine,” it said, citing one of four expert groups that had been used after the diesel summit of the Federal Government last August.

Retrofitting should help to relieve the cities of excessive nitrogen oxide emissions of the vehicles. The automotive industry is resisting so far against changes to the hardware. The coalition agreement for the possible new edition of the black-red coalition states that driving bans should be prevented with “more efficient and clean internal combustion engines including retrofits”.

According to experts, hardware retrofitting could prevent driving bans, which are also a consequence of the diesel affair. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig will decide next Thursday on the example of Dusseldorf on such prohibitions. The decision has considerable significance for private drivers and the economy. For example, many craftsmen drive diesel vehicles.

Resistance to a promotion with state money comes, according to “SZ” from the federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Berlin. Accordingly, they would like to impose the full costs on the auto industry.

The Federation of Consumer Organizations see no reason why the state and motorists should pay at all. Green parliamentary group vice Oliver Krischer criticized according to the sheet also a reversal of the polluter-pays principle. This is “a joke,” he is quoted.

apr / AFP / Reuters

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