Two days after announcing it would reopen mothballed coal-fired power stations, senior German minister says government won’t ban combustion engines.
Germany could defy the European Union’s effective ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, in a move aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of jobs in its world-leading car manufacturing sector.
Lindner, a member of the business-friendly Free Democratic party within the coalition government, told a conference on Tuesday evening AEST: “Germany is not going to agree to a ban on combustion engines.” Adding to tensions within the German coalition, a spokesman for Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, from the Green alliance, said the government “fully supports the proposal by the Commission and the European Parliament to allow new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles only with zero-emission powertrains from 2035”.
Italy is pushing to obtain an exception for carmakers like Ferrari, Bugatti and Lamborghini from the ban.