Germany wants to have 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030, according to Agerpres. This includes both fully electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. Transport Minister Volker Wissing then changed a promise made in a deal signed by the governing coalition parties late last year.
"We want all of our cars to be electric. But, of course, hybrid models will also help " Volker Wissing, a member of the Liberal Democrats (FDP), said this at a conference organized by the Handelsblatt daily. This could be a sign that environmentalists and other parties in the coalition are not getting along.
Germany agreed to set a goal of "at least 15 million fully electric cars" by 2030. By 2030, there should be 14 million electric cars on the road, with at least 10 million of those cars being fully electric cars. This goal is a step up from the previous administration's plan of having 10 million fully electric vehicles on the road.
Hybrid cars, which some see as a way to get companies and governments ready to use all-electric cars on a large scale, are criticized by environmental groups for being just as bad as cars that run on fossil fuels.
The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) says that about half of the electric cars on German roads are hybrid cars, and the other half are fully electric cars.
At the Handelsblatt conference, Volker Wissing adopted another controversial topic. He states that it does not rule out the possibility of combustion engines being powered by synthetic fuels, or e-fuels, even if their production is expensive and requires large amounts of renewable energy to make them carbon-neutral.
The supply of synthetic fuels is minimal, and they should only be used by specific industries, like shipping and aviation. Wissing told Der Spiegel last week that this is true.
Monday, Volker Wissing said there was a need for technological openness and that e-fuels could be used by heavy vehicles. However, the German Automobile Association, one of the supporters of synthetic fuels, was not happy with his comments.
