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Tuesday, November 17, 2020
With a total of five billion euros, the state wants to adapt the battered auto industry to the post-pandemic era, with purchase premiums for electric cars and bonuses for scrapping trucks. The reactions contradict each other.
The federal government wants to support the ailing auto industry in the corona and climate crisis with more billions and help with change. Immediately before a meeting with the industry under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the government agreed in the evening on a new package worth a good three billion euros. More purchase premiums and a fund are planned to support the change. According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, a total of around five billion euros is available. He justified the new aid with a “long-term structural change” that brought with it “great challenges”.
At the same time, Seibert admitted that the auto industry “after a sharp drop in sales in the first half of the year” is now showing “the first signs of recovery” again. An aid of two billion euros from the economic stimulus package had already been promised for the supplier industry. With the help, key industry will be able to successfully master this test, said Economy Minister Peter Altmaier of the CDU.
The Minister of the Environment, Svenja Schulze, emphasized: “We want to combine the way out of the economic crisis with the way out of the climate crisis.” The emphasis is on modernization. “This momentum will benefit the auto industry in the long run,” said the SPD politician.
The core element is the extension of the increase in the purchase premium for electric cars beyond 2021 to 2025. This will cost one billion euros. Another € 1 billion is earmarked for a premium for scrapping old trucks if new trucks are bought from them. They can also be new diesel engines. In addition, a € 1 billion “Automotive Industry Future Fund” is being relaunched to promote innovation and transformation. The fund’s goal is to develop medium and long-term “transformation strategies” for the auto industry, Seibert said. The goal is to join forces and achieve “cooperation between the federal, state and regional levels, but at the same time between companies, unions” and science.
“Purchase voucher for dirty hybrids”
A spokesman for the climate protection movement Fridays for Future (FFF) criticized the investment package as a “blockage in the mobility transition.” In particular, it condemned the “dirty hybrid purchase premium.” The government and lobbyists invited to the auto summit would delay “the sustainable transformation of the auto industry,” he told AFP news agency. In the end, this only hurts the employees.
However, the approval comes from the German automotive industry and IG Metall. The extension of the “innovation bonus” for electric cars and other instruments is a help for climate protection and economic strength, explained the president of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), Hildegard Müller. “Every week we bring 12,000 new electric cars to the streets of Germany.” But these would now also need many new electronic charging stations. IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann said a promised trade-in program for heavy commercial vehicles should be viewed positively to gain further financial support. This also applies to the bonus extension for electric and hybrid vehicles. The tense employment situation in the industry, especially in many suppliers, makes it necessary to implement measures quickly.
In the afternoon, the chairman of the Bundestag’s transport commission, Cem Özdemir de los Verdes, criticized the fact that the federal government has been “moving from the top of the car to the top of the car.” But that alone “cannot successfully transform our most important industry.” According to Özdemir, the federal government’s efforts to reverse the transportation sector are insufficient. “We have to fight for technological leadership in all relevant areas,” the green politician told the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft newspapers. If the Greens co-rule at the federal level in the next year and provide the new Federal Minister of Transport, there will still not be an abrupt end for the internal combustion engine, Özdemir emphasized.
FDP wants “deregulation”
Meanwhile, the FDP lobbied for deregulation of the automobile industry during the crisis. “The main German industry must free itself of the ties of the limits of the fleet as soon as possible”, demanded the vice-president of the parliamentary group FDP, Frank Sitta. A long-term recovery of the automotive industry in terms of comprehensive climate protection can only be achieved with an “openness to technology and innovation”, as synthetic fuels are also not “slowed down any further”. FDP President Christian Lindner called on the federal government to end the EU Commission with its stricter emission plans. “The federal government must reject such plans at an early stage,” he said in Berlin. “The fact that Environment Minister Schulze, of all people, should lead the negotiations for Germany should be a red flag for the German economy.”
Unions and associations lobbied for greater state support for the automotive industry in the field of electric mobility. Environmentalists, on the other hand, view industry as responsible. The environmental protection organization BUND warned against more “tax donations” to the auto industry. An extension of existing financing for the purchase of electric and plug-in hybrids beyond 2021 would be “unacceptable,” said BUND traffic expert Jens Hilgenberg. Especially in the case of plug-in hybrids, which are only partially powered by electricity, the support is “fatal” from the point of view of climate protection.
Balancing act between economic aid and climate protection
Chancellor Merkel exchanged ideas with representatives of the automotive industry about the future of the industry in Germany. Participants in the virtual car summit as part of the so-called Concerted Mobility Action are also several federal ministers and prime ministers, as well as union representatives, as well as the heads of the Union and the SPD.
The industry is currently under pressure: while, on the one hand, the economic fallout from the Corona crisis is putting many suppliers in trouble, on the other hand, requirements for climate protection and emissions are increasing. In addition to the expansion of the charging network for electric cars, the bonus for scrapping trucks in particular has recently sparked debate.
