Germans tend to sit around and create massive and often unworkable solutions for problems that simply don't have a solution.
With the diesel car crisis, we reached a point last week where the Federal Court system finally said that yes....cities by themselves could put into an effect to ban certain cars (particularly diesel cars) on the account of dust particles that they put out and the massive problem existing in urbanized areas.
The big rush that everyone expected, with Chancellor Merkel and team....to pay everyone off with massive funding to halt this diesel car ban? Never occurred. They are now stuck with a ban situation that threatens the fabric of the German economy, and the ban will create massive problems.
So in the past day or two....a solution has by suggested by the German Federal Environmental Agency. The story is basically told by ARD (public TV, Channel One).
The idea is that on each car in Germany....there is a sticker plaque existing (gas, diesel, electric). As you look on the car, it's generally on the passenger side window, and it's a car, number, and the tag number.
After the first TUV inspection, you get this sticker and it notes your pollution factor. Green is the best color. Blue....less so.
So the suggestion here by the Envrionemnt agency is simple....there's going to be a blue sticker (already existing for the diesel cars).....but there will be a potential division occurring with a light blue sticker and a dark blue sticker.
Yep, you can see where this is going.
Dark blue goes to the newer cars with the better technology (Euro 6d). Lighter blue would go to the cars with the Euro 6c or lesser cars. Number-wise, I would take a guess that 20-percent of all diesels in the country would fit into the Euro 6d category. Unless serious modifications occur (filters, software, etc)....the rest would get the light blue decals.
The idea here is that you'd create a system where a city could ban these 'bad' cars (the light blue) when high pollutant numbers exist. By their view, you could have certain parts of the city open, and certain parts of a city banned to the light blue decal cars.
Then the Ministry laid down the hype....they want the car companies to own up to the problem and confess their 'sins' by paying for all this retrofitting and filter-process. The car companies? No....they will absolutely refuse to participate in this process, and will fight this via the court system if challenged. People talk over the cost....if there was an approved filter system, and it would be likely near 2,500 Euro. The problem is that people tend to think that mileage would suffer and perhaps engine damage would occur with the suggested filter system. So far, the damage idea hasn't been readily approved. The mileage thing? Well....several PhD type engineers have publicly suggested that some mileage would be lost. They can't cite facts because no one has reached a conclusion on an approved filter. If you were going to ask me on when this filter might come out...I would be suggested toward the end of 2019. Would this fix everything? No one will suggest that....most say that cars made in the past fifteen years would benefit mostly, and those over the age of twenty years probably would not be helped enough by the filter.
The potential here for fake decals to appear? Most Germans would grin and say 'never' but admit that a small group of people might go in this direction.
With fourteen million diesel cars in the country (82-million people)....this has become a top five political issue. So far, the Berlin crowd really don't want to get involved because they don't see this solved without spending tons of money that they don't have.
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