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Green party accuses FDP of gambling away country’s reputation after last-minute blocking of phase-out from 2035 A clash over climate protection measures is threatening to unravel Germany’s three-party governing alliance, after the Green party accused its liberal coalition partners of gambling away the country’s reputation by blocking a EU-wide phase-out of internal combustion engines in cars. “You can’t have a coalition of progress where only one party is in charge of progress and the others try to stop the progress,” the country’s vice-chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, said at a meeting of the Green party’s parliamentary group in Weimar on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Germany’s rearguard defence of the combustion engine sends a disastrous signal in the race to meet net zero targets Germany’s pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) has long been an uncompromising defender of the biggest domestic car industry in Europe. A couple of years ago, it campaigned against proposals for a national speed limit on autobahns – a move that would have helped reduce Germany’s CO 2 emissions. But as a coalition partner in Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat-led government, it is taking environmental obstructionism to a new level. The FDP is the driving force behind German opposition to Brussels’ plans to ban sales of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035. Until this month, the date was considered a done deal, and constitutes a vital pillar of the EU’s strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But Germany is now insisting that the European Commission offers a get-out clause, allowing car manufacturers to carry on producing the engines if they can fin...

Request for exemption from ICE car phase-out would displace up to 46m electric cars, says campaign group A shock German push to break an agreed EU-wide phase-out of conventional cars by 2035 could displace up to 46m electric car sales and trigger the burning of 135bn more litres of fossil petrol than needed, according to a new study. EU leaders and MEPs had agreed a phase-out of internal combustion engines (ICEs) by 2035 but earlier this month, Germany’s transport ministry, led by the liberal FDP party, lodged an objection just days before a rubber-stamping vote. Continue reading...

Carmaker says it is progressing faster on US factory than European one thanks to subsidies Volkswagen has told the EU it is making faster progress in building a US battery factory than one in eastern Europe because of huge subsidies made available by the White House – adding to pressure on Brussels to offer bigger green incentives. Europe’s largest carmaker has warned the EU it is being overtaken in the race to attract gigafactory investment, after Joe Biden announced a package of help to achieve net zero aims worth a total of $369bn (£312bn) under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) . Continue reading...

Registrations hit 74,400 in seventh successive month of growth, with electric cars accounting for 16.5% The number of cars sold in the UK increased by 26% year on year in February, the seventh successive month of growth as the industry recovers from the depths of the global computer chips shortage . UK new car registrations rose by 26.2% in February to 74,400, according to data published on Monday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. Continue reading...