The Minister of Transport and his party have prevailed in the dispute over the combustion engine.
(Photo: dpa)
The liberals can’t stop celebrating. As soon as the first reports appear on the news tickers that their Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, has prevailed in the dispute with the EU Commission over the end of combustion engines, the jubilation begins.
“The end of combustion engines is dead, the green combustion engine is coming,” tweeted the FDP environmental politician Judith Skudelny. Her parliamentary colleague Michael Kruse adds: “In Europe, we remain open to technology.”
Brussels accepts Germany’s list of demands for zero-emission engines. Specifically, that new cars with combustion engines can now be registered in the EU beyond 2035, provided they only burn so-called e-fuels.
The bizarre thing is that the FDP speaks of Germany, but basically only means itself. Hardly anyone can gain anything from their e-fuels extra sausage.
On the contrary: In order to push through a demand from the traffic light coalition agreement, the party questioned a long-established compromise between the EU states. And sent the fatal signal that Germany is not a reliable partner in European politics.
What if this behavior catches on and other countries stop legislative packages that have already been negotiated for national reasons?
>> Read also: Which German branches of industry would benefit from e-fuels
In addition, the benefits that the FDP and its Minister of Transport expect from e-fuels are manageable. Experts like the auto professor Ferdinand Dudenhöffer call the energy balance “horrible”.
And VW and Porsche boss Oliver Blume said at the car summit in the chancellery at the beginning of the year: he sees at best a niche role for small series manufacturers for synthetic fuels as new car drives.
Openness to technology or not – the transport minister should actually know about this niche.
More: That’s what the argument about e-fuels is about