As the smoke started to clear today over the diesel summit here in Germany....as I kinda predicted....the 'fat-lady' has yet to sing.
One of the major environmental foundations.....DUH (German Environmental Aid).....said that nothing was really accomplished in terms of better air for German cities. This software talk that VW and the major car manufacture companies discussed.....weren't enough to change the emission limit. As they noted....even if this 30-percent was accomplished that the companies talked about.....it would still be FOUR times the legal present limit of the Euro 6 limit.
From ARD, the Minister President of Saxony....Stephan Weil.....said that the bigger problem now is what you do with older diesel cars in the Euro 1 to Euro 4 standard....where software or hardware updates won't work.
The total of Euro 1 to Euro 4 diesel cars in Germany? 6.4-million.
In a normal election year, this would now rank as the number one problem in Germany.....with all of the political parties hyping their agenda or solution. Oddly.....you see virtually nothing.
Days until the ban would take place? 151 days. If the court doesn't stop the ban talk....if the Bundestag doesn't step in to order the cities to halt the ban.....if the science guys can't invent some solution, you can sense that a massive number of owners will be left with no way to drive to work, or have any value left in their diesel car.
The easiest fix to all of this? Convert to natural gas. The kits would run between 1,200 to 2,000 Euro, and take a half-day for a mechanic to accomplish. Oddly, you don't hear a single German journalist suggesting this. I admit....with over six million cars....it'd take longer than six months to get this done. You'd also have to come up with a lot more fueling stations with the natural gas option.
If you were looking for the major topic to flip Germans over in the next five months....this diesel topic is number one.
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