Many motorists have not yet digested the ban on combustion engines when researchers are already coming up with new ideas: driving bans, speed limits, tolls and massively increased fuel prices could make driving impossible for a large part of the population.
If you want to buy a new diesel, petrol or hybrid car, you still have 13 years in the EU to do so. Then their admission will be banned. This is provided for by a decision by the EU Parliament, which could soon come into force after the approval of the member states. The sense and nonsense of the ban on internal combustion engines has been and is much disputed. However, motorists must be prepared for the fact that this ban is only the tip of a away from the car as a means of transport, at least if the EU has its way.
Traffic contributes around 25 percent to the calculated CO2 emissions in the EU, but is now expected to save almost 100 percent of emissions in a few years. This applies to all modes of transport, from cars to airplanes, but private car traffic in particular will be hit hardest by the various measures declared as climate protection. This is also reflected in the EU’s ban on internal combustion engines, in that the parliamentarians expressly reject the use of synthetic, climate-neutral fuels for cars – because they should be given preference to the aviation industry.
If researchers at the influential Fraunhofer Institute have their way, the ban on internal combustion engines is only the peak of a development to make motorists significantly more expensive and more difficult in its current form. Although this would initially favor e-cars, it ultimately aims to push back car traffic and thus individual traffic above the bicycle overall.
Claus Doll and Professor Martin Wietschel from the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) explain: “The mobility ecosystem addressed by the EU directive includes all measures to make it more difficult to use non-CO2-neutral vehicles and climate-neutral alternatives, especially outside of motorized private transport.”
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The Fraunhofer researchers name the following measures, among others:
In view of the fact that the inflation in energy and fuel prices is already making it more difficult for more and more people to drive, the additional measures required are likely to make driving a car in general and using petrol and diesel vehicles in particular significantly more expensive. For the state, in turn, many of the measures are attractive because they would lead to numerous new sources of income. Cities and municipalities, for example, would particularly benefit from tolls.
However, owners of electric cars, who are currently being generously funded with taxpayers’ money in numerous ways, should not rejoice too soon. Because with the ban on combustion engines that has now been introduced, the main argument for funding and preferential tax treatment is no longer applicable: helping the electric car, which is currently still expensive, to achieve a breakthrough compared to established drives. Because the established drives are banned.
“Special funding for electric vehicles will not be necessary, since electric vehicles are already cost-competitive with combustion vehicles,” believe Claus Doll and Professor Martin Wietschel from the Fraunhofer Institute.
However, it is not that far yet. Without purchase premiums, the price level, even for a small electric car, would remain at a level that would not be achievable for many households. For example, an Opel Corsa-e (337 km range) costs just under 30,000 euros without funding. A tiny car like the VW E-Up (range 260 km) is 21,421 euros.
A largely all-round suitable family vehicle, in which the range is also sufficient for vacation trips, is considerably higher. For example, a Skoda Enyaq in the more powerful battery variants costs between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. At least for the time being, these list prices are not being lowered by discounts, as has been the case for petrol and diesel cars for a long time.
In order for at least those drivers who have their own garage with an electricity connection and are not dependent on public charging stations to be able to maintain their individual mobility in the usual way, the price of new e-cars would have to fall significantly. Manufacturers such as Ford assume that this will also happen and even predict a price war between manufacturers in the electrical sector – at least in the USA.
There, however, the thrust of politics is different than in the EU. Although the current US government also relies heavily on e-mobility, with the exception of a few states, it does not link this to bans or other restrictive measures for conventional vehicles. Instead, the US auto industry, with the support of the government, is focusing on adapting electric mobility to the “American way of drive” – for example with the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup, which is electrically powered but otherwise downright classic.
On our e-mobility portal EFAHRER.com you will find all e-vehicles available on the German market
You can also arrange a test drive for the car of your choice free of charge and thus start e-mobility in an uncomplicated manner.
