Germany’s Climate Obstacle: Its Love Affair With Combustion Cars
Automakers enjoy deeply embedded support from customers and have influence over government policy.
An electric Volkswagen ID.3 inside one of the automaker's Autostadt delivery towers at their headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen plans to spend $34 billion boosting its battery production capacity.
Photographer: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/BloombergSign up for our Hyperdrive newsletter for expert insight into EVs, batteries and autonomous driving
Germany’s transport and energy ministries sit just 450 feet apart, separated by a Berlin Wall monument, in the city’s government quarter. Civil servants and tourists regularly amble across the park between the two buildings. Yet the divide between the departments’ progress on cutting planet-warming emissions threatens to torpedo Chancellor Angela Merkel’s climate goals.