The German government is again causing trouble in the EU - this time, it is not Transport Minister Wissing but the Chancellor himself. Olaf Scholz is said to have intervened in the dispute between the EU and China over raising tariffs for Chinese EVs with a compromise offer.
Most cars sold in the EU are still combustion engines. Replacing them with EVs would make enviromental sense and China giving state money to make EU EVs cheaper is not that bad a move.
Problem is obviously that the EUs automotive industry has to compete, but that can be done by matching subsidies as well.
Personal EVs are not a solution. We need less cars overall, not replace combustion with EV. EVs still significantly contribute to pollution, noise and car-centered infrastructure. EVs are just the car industry’s way of continuing business as usual without changing anything and is not environmentally friendly.
The only solution is more and better public infrastructure, more bikes and walkable cities, where the important things are either close by or sufficiently accessible by public transport.
EVs are not the solution but they should be part of the solution.
And EVs are still better then combustion engines. Even better the EU is not going to be able to match Chinese subsidies. So the EU car industry is going to die and replaced by Chinese cars. However those will have a much harder time lobbying for car focused infrastructure. Just compare Germany and the Netherlands for example. One has a massive car industry and the other does not.
Yeah! More subsidies for car makers! What could possibly go wrong?