When you bring up the diesel crisis in Germany.....then gaze at the political parties....there is a division that exists. Merkel and right-of-center crowd don't believe the retrofit gimmick will work, and the SPD Party is mostly banking on the idea of forcing the retrofit gimmick. I noted this discussion being brought up today by N-TV (commercial news in Germany).
This week, the Chancellor had a short comment on the technical retrofiting....suggesting that the idea was "relatively expensive."
Presently, what can be said is that the German federal government is evaluating various ideas. None of them are 'winners'. The car industry itself.....rejects the retrofit idea as being too expensive. I think most of this talk comes up because they really don't want to be stuck with 100-percent of the cost involved. The estimate on cost? Based on an interview I saw in December with a professor going over the retrofit idea....it'd likely be in the 2,000 to 2,500 Euro range (parts and labor included).
There are two issues, I think to this idea of the modification to the car. First....will the car be less productive (meaning less mileage) after you install this kit? Some people think so. The second issue is this cost factor.
The one idea I've heard is where the government would pay for 50-percent of the cost, and the car industry the remainder. Course, there would be a diesel tax increase, and the government would recover their money in four years by the tax increase. I suspect that the car companies would prefer the entire cost be borne by the government, and entirely paid off by the consumer in diesel fuel taxes over the next decade.
A big issue? I would rate this discussion as a top 20 issue presently....mostly because there are so many diesel car owners in the country, and all of them are frustrated.
No comments:
Post a Comment