The future will be zero-emissions vehicles. That’s a fact. Germany is working on getting them into the present sooner rather than later.
Germany isn't content with relying on financial incentives to usher in an era of pollution-free cars. The country's Bundesrat (federal council) has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. From then on, you'd have to buy a zero-emissions vehicle, whether it's electric or running on a hydrogen fuel cell. This isn't legally binding, but the Bundesrat is asking the European Commission to implement the ban across the European Union... and when German regulations tend to shape EU policy, there's a chance that might happen.
Will consumers get bent out of shape by these movements? Not necessarily.
In the one year after the diesel scandal became public, customers were mostly unmoved, and the diesel take rate barely budged, until in August, Germany’s regulator Kraftfahrtbundesamt registered a sudden, and sharp drop in the registrations of diesel cars. Last week, the reputable AID Newsletter, read by auto executives all over the world, reported that “environmental storms sent Europe’s diesel car demand into a steep downward spiral.” In Germany, diesel sales dropped 5%, while the fuel fell more out of favor in neighboring countries. August diesel sales were down 5.8% in France, 5.5% in Belgium and Luxembourg, and a whopping 12.9 percent in the Netherlands.
These dinosaurs won’t go down without a fight and the sooner we can bring about their extinction the better chance the rest of us have at surviving and thriving.