Back around four years ago, the Bundestag got around to passing a law...saying that all new car sales....involving gas or diesel cars....would conclude by 2030. You could not sell a new gas/diesel car at that point, within Germany.
At the time, there were three things that you noticed. On the priority scale with most working-class Germans...this didn't even register as a top-500 problem. So they were fairly shocked how quick this went through the discussion stage and then got passed.
Second, the intent here, was to drive the public toward E-cars....whether they desired it or not. At that point (2016), I would suggest that fewer than 5-percent of the German public felt compelled or excited about the E-car business. A lot of this had to do with the distance you could travel with the E-car, the charging time for cars, and the general cost (above 40k Euro) for each car. I should add that electrical cost probably figured into a quarter of the discussion as well (Germany has one of the highest rates for electricity of any EU country).
Third, various professors came out at the time and said in straight-forward way....you need around 50-percent less parts in an E-car, than in a gas/diesel car. Germany has a large segment of the work-force who build car-parts. So logically....they put it on the table.....probably half the work-force who build solely car-parts will not be necessary.
Well....last week, the car-parts 'giant' in Germany....Continental....said that it's going to a shutdown phase. It won't be sudden but they already see the light at the end of the tunnel on the necessarily of their parts business.
Yesterday, Continental employees held a strike/demonstration.....mostly around Frankfurt, and the 'Wall-Street' area of town....blaming commerce for their jobs that will be going away.
In the midst of this....various politicians came out and said they'd talk to Continental and try to talk 'sense' into them.
I just started laughing.
These are the same politicians who in 2016 voted for the E-car law and started the end for car-parts manufacturing in Germany. The workers on the demonstration.....they still haven't grasped this.
Solidarity promised by the CDU and SPD parties for the workers? It's a joke. They invented the law, and knew precisely what would occur.
Will people follow this path to the E-car, even if forced? I have my doubts. I suspect that various Germans will find angles to buy new gas/diesel cars in Czech or Italy, and just import them into Germany....paying some outrageous 2k Euro fee (if required)....and continue to use gas/diesel cars.
As for the folks complaining over the loss of their jobs? I doubt if they ever realized the full impact in 2016, and their lives are forever changed because of the law.
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