German International Council on Clean Transportation will scrap 8 million fossil cars. It benefits the environment, they say. But that forgets the environmental impact of electric cars, says the critic.
A new investigation into electric cars and a possible scrappage scheme has sparked debate in Germany.
The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has proposed scrapping 8 million internal combustion vehicles as part of a plan to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector.
According to ICCT's calculations, this initiative will be able to reduce emissions from car traffic by 14 percent in 2030, which corresponds to a total of 64 million tons of CO2. This must be done in particular by scrapping older diesel cars (those that are 15 years old, ed.) and gasoline-powered cars (over 25 years old, ed.).
However, the investigation is subject to criticism from several sides. Among other things, the German motoring magazine Focus has called ICCT's proposal "crazy". The media believes that the ICCT does not take into account the fact that electric cars are not completely emission-free either.
Focus, quoted by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , expresses skepticism with the words: "It sounds good at first – but in the end it's a scam."
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According to the ICCT, the introduction of a scrap premium will cost approximately 35 billion euros, corresponding to 261 billion kroner.
But they argue that it will be an effective method to reduce the harmful substances from the transport sector. The transport sector currently accounts for 60 percent of CO2 emissions in Germany, which has the largest car fleet in Europe with 49 million vehicles.
The German government aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 60 percent by 2030. However, according to ICCT's calculations, current developments will result in emissions of 75 million tonnes of CO2. Far above the target.
It is not the first time that Germany is considering introducing a scrap premium. In 2007, a similar scheme was introduced, which cost five billion euros, but which only led to a reduction in emissions of four percent. At the time, the scrappage scheme applied to cars older than nine years.
Daimler Trucks' director, Martin Daum, has previously proposed an annual increase in fuel prices as a means of promoting the transition to electric vehicles. He believes that this proposal will push even more people into electric cars than various bills manage with tax reductions.
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