We reported last week on the pending meeting between Germanys car manufacturers and the German Chancellor, Freidich Merz. After the meeting Merz made the bold statement “If I have my way, and I will do everything I can to ensure that this does not happen and there will be no such hard cut in 2035,” whilst others called for greater flexibility. This marks a significant turning point in the ongoing debate over the Germany EU engine ban, as Berlin signals resistance to the sweeping 2035 rule.
It would seem that at last, we are seeing a glimmer of rationality from Berlin. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has drawn a line in the sand against the EU’s looming 2035 ban on new fossil-fuel cars, vowing to fight it tooth and nail. His declaration was, of course, music to the ears of carmakers staring down the barrel of a regulatory shotgun, not to mention us petrol-heads.
Germany’s once-mighty auto industry, which has already cut 50,000 jobs (6% of its total) but still employs 750,000 workers, is already reeling from sluggish EV sales, sky-high electricity prices, and a charging network that’s about as reliable as British train timetables. Manufacturers like Volkswagen admit that the political “forecasts” about the EV revolution were wildly optimistic. Translation: no one is buying these things fast enough to save the industry from collapse.
Merz isn’t denying climate goals, he’s simply saying what many are too afraid to: you can’t schedule “technological neutrality” with a calendar. Flexibility, he insists, is key. And for once, even his coalition partners seem to agree. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the SPD echoed the call, saying hybrids and alternative fuels could be part of the solution.
That’s code for: the full EV push isn’t working and probably never will.
There’s also a growing whisper, one now edging into mainstream conversation, that perhaps we’ve all been a bit hasty demonising carbon dioxide. After all, CO₂ is not a pollutant but the gas of life, the same stuff that plants need to grow and that makes your beer fizz. The idea that humanity’s survival hinges on eliminating it entirely looks increasingly absurd in the face of emerging scientific evidence.
Environmental groups are predictably furious, calling the shift “disastrous”. But the real disaster would be to keep strangling Europe’s greatest industry in the name of ideological purity.
If Germany can lead Europe back to reason, where technology, not dogma, drives progress, then maybe, just maybe, the wheels won’t come off entirely and the Germany EU engine ban will finally be reconsidered for the sake of the continent’s automotive future.
