Currently reading: Germany plans to ban combustion engine cars by 2030

Government official voices intent to only allow emission free models to be sold on German market

A senior government official in Germany has declared all new car registrations must be for emissions-free models from 2030.

Rainer Baake, German Deputy Economy Minister, has said that new cars will have to be emissions-free to enable his country to meet its CO2 reduction target of at least 80% by 2050. “The fact is, there’s been no reduction at all in CO2 emissions by transport since 1990,” explained Baake at a forum hosted by German newspaper Tagesspiegel.

Germany’s uptake of electric vehicles has been slow, with about 25,000 registered on German roads at the moment, alongside 14.5 million diesel vehicles. The ongoing dieselgate scandal has revealed large-scale inconsistencies in emissions test results and real-world emissions, meaning it’s possible that pollution released by diesel models is higher than the latest estimated figures.

In a bid to encourage the development of electric vehicles, the German government is offering subsidies to those buying EVs and hopes to have half a million emissions-free vehicles on its roads by 2020. By 2030, it plans to have 6 million EVs and hybrids registered.

Some of Germany’s biggest car makers are already making movements to meet such a requirement. BMW set the trend with its BMW i3 and i8, and is now developing an all-electric version of the latter, while Mercedes-Benz has announced that a new hydrogen fuel cell car with a 310-mile projected range will enter production next year. Most recently, Volkswagen revealed ambitious plans to sell 3m electric cars by 2025, so it seems the industry is already reacting to potential changes in legislation.

Earlier this year, the Dutch city of Rotterdam banned diesel cars manufactured before 2001 from some of its streets in order to reduce air pollution. France’s capital city, Paris, and the Norwegian government have also expressed intent to ban diesels in the near future.

Lee Stern

Read more: Is diesel facing a slow death?

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fadyady 17 June 2016

Bold target

Bold move from a country hooked to diesel and that is responsible for causing highest deadly NOX emissions in many parts of the world.
ricequackers 17 June 2016

Market forces, not regulations are the way forward

I don't think it's necessary or desirable to introduce a ban on ICE cars at an arbitrarily defined date as the market will do that for them. As electric cars improve and fall in price, customers will naturally flock to them and sales of ICEs will decline, so manufacturers will put out fewer and fewer of them. No regulatory ban needed.
Folks_Wagen 17 June 2016

Radical

It won't be long before the ICE, with its fancy metallurgy, precision machining, and complex control systems is as state of the art as a reel to reel tape recorder. I'll miss those wonderful sounds though. I'll take my electric car with a V8 Mustang's burble please.