Volkswagen wants incentives for diesel cars removed in Germany

Posted By on December 11, 2017

After years of leading the "clean diesel" push and getting their hand slapped for cheating on emissions testing, Volkswagen looks to be giving up on fossil fuel or at least diesel cars. In fact according the New York Times, VW wants the German government to phase out tdi-vw-logo415subsidies they lobbied for for years that favored diesel cars. Looks pretty transparent to me?

“We should question the logic and purpose of diesel subsidies,” Matthias Müller, the chief executive of Volkswagen, said in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt. “The money can be invested more sensibly to promote more environmentally friendly technologies.”

Mr. Müller is the first German auto boss to publicly suggest that the government should stop subsidizing diesel, a step that would certainly hasten the technology’s demise. Though cautiously formulated, his comments represented a major turnaround.

Diesel was practically sacred to German carmakers until recently, but sales have been plummeting since Volkswagen confessed in 2015 to widespread cheating on emissions tests, a scandal that drew attention to the health hazards of diesel exhaust.

According to Jalopnik, The New York Times also reported that Müller also said he’s in favor of banning older diesels from city centers … unless they are the newer diesel cars that meet emissions targets.

The more I see big government dictating life in Europe, the more I’m thankful to be living in the United States where individual freedom is respected and somewhat protected (so thankful not to have liberals running the Federal government or my state of Ohio).

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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

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