Thus Scholz’s Germany follows Volkswagen on e-fuel and electric cars
The world's second largest car manufacturer by volume after the Japanese Toyota is making Germany skid in its relations with the EU, but Volkswagen's strategy is clear: go electric, also keeping internal combustion engines thanks to e-fuel
Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland are toasting, the EU countries opposed to the ban on internal combustion engines and to Euro 7: they never would have expected to bring Berlin on their side. Instead, Germany, as we have mentioned , has begun to pay attention to Volkswagen's wishes. The European institutions, on the other hand, remain appalled, as they certainly did not expect such a U-turn from the executive of Olaf Scholz , who had adhered to both dossiers only a few weeks ago. Germany is a "heavy" country both for GDP and for representation within the European Parliament, being very populous.
GERMANY AND VW SHIFTING THE BALANCE IN COMMISSION
And he has a natural gift as a leader, which is why the new stance already seems to have led even an "environmental hawk" like the Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans to more lenient advice who, in Italy for an event, told La Repubblica that "Europe leaves the choice of technology to the industry" with which to achieve the goal of zero emissions from car exhausts in 2035. "It's not us who say what they should use", he continued, "and this does not mean that the other cars (non-electric, ed) will no longer exist: cars with combustion engines will still exist, but the new machines will not be able to emit CO2”.
Until now, the EU government and legislator had gone in the opposite direction, that of choosing, by law, that the energy and ecological transition in the automotive industry would necessarily have the features of the electric car (after all, no State is committing itself to the creation of a charging network for hydrogen cars). Now, however, Ursula von der Leyen 's number 2 opens: "It is not a choice that we make, we have only indicated the objective, the rest depends on the companies in the sector and the supply chain". Timmermans said he "prefers battery-powered, electric or hydrogen-powered cars, but whether there are other technologies is up to the industry to decide, not us."
VW MAKES FRANCE AND GERMANY FIGHT
They are not as malleable, but it was known, the French. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire is fervent: “We cannot say there is a climate emergency and then withdraw from the transition to electric vehicles,” then added: “We are ready to fight because it is a mistake environmental and economic". “To say that we will go electric – the accusation that Paris makes to Berlin -, but we will remain with endothermic for a while is economically incoherent and dangerous for the industry. It's not in our national interest, it's not in the automakers' interest and it's not in the planet's interest."
The reply of the German counterpart, Christian Lindner, arrived shortly after: “Le Maire knows very well that mobility by car could become increasingly expensive for many people who work hard. We need to take these concerns seriously." And then the lunge in tones if possible even harsher than those used by Paris: "It is very regrettable that the French government is threatening a showdown in the dispute over the ban on endothermics".
THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE SCHOLZ GOVERNMENT COME TO THE COMB
In reality, Germany's new and sudden stance in the wake of VW's wishes (the CEO declared: "Our strategy is to keep internal combustion engines on the market, given that they are much loved in many areas of the world") is not appreciated. not too much at home. Sueddeutsche Zeitung did not fail to underline how, after the first criticisms made towards the EU plan, the German Ministry of Transport did not intervene in this sense, disregarding the dossier.
Except, then, suddenly change when the 2035 ban was now ready to be approved. Fdp, the party that pushes to counter the ban on endothermics, is suffering in the polls: it ended up below the 5% threshold in various small parliaments of the lands in which they voted in 2022 and trembles for its future survival. The intention to recover by grabbing the favors of industrialists and workers is clear, considering that the energy transition will put many of them out of the gates and is the main reason why it is opposed by the powerful German metalworkers' unions, which in VW caused the defenestration of Herbert Diess .
VW'S LATEST ELECTRIC MOVES
As Startmag wrote last week, Volkswagen's change of line was determined precisely by the handover between Herbert Diess and Oliver Blume , the latter having always been a well-known supporter of e-fuels, so much so that Porsche, the Group's home run by manager, has so far invested over 94 million euros in the development and production of e-fuels and exactly one year ago, in April 1922, he also paid out around 70 million euros to acquire 12.5% of HIF Global .
However, this does not mean that VW has abandoned the electric. Far from it. PowerCo, the battery company of the Volkswagen group, has officially started work on the construction of its second European gigafactory inside an industrial park in Sagunto, Spain, 30 kilometers from Valencia. The factory, for which over 3 billion euros will be invested, will start producing cells in 2026 and will support more than 3,000 direct jobs and potentially up to 30,000 in related industries.
Not even a year ago Volkswagen had announced its intention to put 10 billion on the plate (initially the budgeted sum was seven) to start the production of zero-emission cars and the creation of the related batteries in Spain. On that occasion, accompanied by half the Iberian government, the number 1 of the time, Herbert Diess, had declared: “We will electrify Spain with a new gigafactory and a new factory dedicated to electric cars. We will create a supplier ecosystem that works across the entire value chain, from lithium extraction to battery assembly."
The German plan envisages the involvement of Seat and, above all, of the largest Spanish energy company, Iberdrola, which has allocated 500 million euros for electric mobility and which will install a photovoltaic park which will help feed the gigafactory which will be built in Sagunto, near in Valencia. It would have been precisely the intervention of Seat and Iberdrola, in all probability pushed into the field by the Spanish government, that convinced the Germans to put 3 billion more into the operation, with the increase from seven to 10.
The Spanish gigafactory will occupy an area of 130 hectares, which reaches 200 also considering the adjacent supplier base. PowerCo, which has already started work to build the first gigafactory in Salzgitter (Germany) and which will also have to build a twin overseas, in St.Thomas (Ontario) for its first North American plant, has set the initial production capacity at 40 GWh of the Iberian site, enough to equip around 800,000 cars, but could rise to 60 GWh if demand increases.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/cosi-la-germania-scholz-si-accoda-a-volkswagen-su-e-fuel-e-auto-elettriche/ on Mon, 20 Mar 2023 10:51:47 +0000.