Merkel Offers to Help German Carmakers on CO2

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledges to help the country’s carmakers in their “Herculean” effort to meet European Union carbon dioxide emission limits.

Merkel backs a plan to tax CO₂ emissions from cars in a consistent and long-term manner that will coax consumers into “greener” means of transportation. The goal, she says at ceremonies today that kicks off the Frankfurt auto show this week, is to “move innovation in the right direction.”

Merkel offered no specifics. But she describes lowering CO₂ emissions as a “task for mankind.”

The attempt to date hasn’t gone well in Germany. Merkel set a goal in 2013 of putting 1 million electrified cars on the road in Germany by 2020. But only 80,000 such vehicles were in use three years later. Demand for hybrids and all-electric vehicles in Germany totaled only 55,000 units in 2018, representing less than 2% of all new-car sales in the country..

Bloomberg News notes that global recognition of climate change is handing the auto industry an “unprecedented threat” to its traditional business model. Carmakers recognize that the future is dim for a strategy of simply making and servicing cars sold to individual owners. As analysts point out, ride-sharing, autonomy and connectivity are poised to redefine how consumers pay to move about.