Comment from Peter Schwerdtmann

The climate targets cannot be achieved without synthetic fuels. The speakers at the 15th Berlin Automobile Dialog, which was hosted today by the Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry (ZDK) as an online discussion, are in agreement with this view. Since a possible ban on new registrations of internal combustion engines would only have a minor impact on the fleet of existing vehicles reached by then, the expansion of so-called e-fuels is urgently required.  Read full article ... (635 words, 1 image)

From Harald Kaiser

Car owners will be asked in a few years' time: Who pays if the robot fails at the wheel and it crashes as a result? Now there are the first answers.   Read full article ... (988 words)

Two years earlier than announced, Volkswagen plans to add a first small car to the ID family as early as 2025. As a first outlook on such a vehicle, the company is now presenting the crossover study ID Life, which, with its combination of sustainable elements and digitization, is intended to specifically address a young urban target group. The crossover model with four doors, a large tailgate, a raised seating position and variable interior space will cost between 20.000 and 25.000 euros as the entry-level “Accelerate” model.  Read full article ... (515 words, 2 images)

From Harald Kaiser

Cars? Yuck, for God's sake! This is Uropa's means of transport. Today cargo bikes are popular. In the opinion of the Greens, there should also be a purchase bonus for them if possible - if the gentlemen should be involved in the next federal government. But they have already managed to get the cargo bike number spread in the media. And so they definitely got the attention they had hoped for.  Read full article ... (1769 words, 1 image)

It should have become clear to everyone that the IAA will never be the same as it was in Frankfurt. The organizers and organizers of the Munich IAA Mobility have, however, achieved excellent communication with the new concept. Starting with digitization and brilliantly designed apps to the external exhibition venues in downtown Munich. The new concept is undoubtedly mega cool. Why the car opponents wanted to throw sand in the gears, sometimes with violence against police officers and silly abseiling actions of motorway bridges, makes it clear: The car, no matter how green it is, should be abolished.

Although it was mainly e-mobility and innovative ideas that were presented at the IAA Mobility and thus actually the wishes of the car opponents were met, the car opponents consistently stick to their line of wanting to abolish individual mobility. "The car as a means of transport has to disappear", yelled an activist on the Theresienwiese, where there were also massive scuffles with the well-prepared Munich police, who, however, acted fairly free of tolerance and knew how to prevent excesses of the demo. Regardless of how “green” the car manufacturers make their cars: “The car must be abolished” was the message on banners, while the IAA Mobility tried to score points in all halls with e-mobility.  Read full article ... (472 words)

Always embarrassing when it turns out that what you pretend to be is not really what you are - as has recently been exemplified by some of our supposedly promoted or prominent politicians. Even when visiting this year's IAA Mobility in Munich, the impression remains that people adorn themselves with foreign feathers. In contrast to the trade fair name - and especially in comparison to previous events in Frankfurt - this International Motor Show does not live up to its name or its claim.  Read full article ... (532 words, 1 image)

The Audi presentation in Pepple Beach, California, couldn't have been more sensational. The wow factor spread around the exhibit like the gravitational waves of the Big Bang over the famous golf course, where the automotive media and car guys scene admires design studies every year at Monterey Auto Week and oldtimers find new owners for ridiculous sums of money .

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How Volkswagen has to balance e-mobility and combustion products can demand respect. VW group leader Herbert Diess makes no secret of the fact that Volkswagen has to finance the way to battery mobility with the sale of combustion engines. With the introduction of the new “Taigo” it becomes clear once again how contradictory the switch is in the electrical world. Or have to go?

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The best car in the world has always been the S-Class from Mercedes-Benz: Equipped with the latest technology, luxurious and powerful, the Stuttgart flagship has always been the global benchmark for the top vehicle category. But now there is competition from in-house. As a top product for the supposedly electric future, Daimler did not electrify the S-Class, but developed a completely independent model: the EQS. We drove it.

From Jens Meiners  Read full article ... (971 words, 3 images)

"Actual ban on combustion engines, neither innovation-friendly nor open to technology, consumers' freedom of choice is restricted, no assessment of the social consequences", so clearly criticized the President of the Association of the Automotive Industry, Hildegard Müller, of the plans of the EU Commission on the way to so-called "climate neutrality." ".

But what is now supposed to change industrial policy as hard as a hammer is not yet legal. In addition, the intentions of the Commission itself are controversial within the Commission. Behind the “Green Deal” appearance by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the conflicts are still hidden and will soon break open, especially in the coordination with the EU countries.  Read full article ... (406 words)

The Audi bang for the burners from 2026 hit like a bomb. The smoke column of this communication explosion still stands over Auto-Deutschland. Now VW has followed suit. BMW is approaching the topic more carefully and wants to take customer requests into account. All in all, the VDA seems to be stabbing the VDA in the back, which started the anti-auto industry avalanche with the big bang "diesel fraud". Now the VW group seems to overtake even the toughest demands of the Greens, more precisely: to want to undermine them.

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It would be a mistake to turn the EU's mobility strategy upside down as part of the “Green Deal”: 171 scientists in an open letter to the EU Commission asked for calculation errors at CO₂-Balancing of electromobility pointed out. One of the authors, Professor Thomas Koch from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), explains what it is about in an interview with Jens Meiners from the Authors' Union Mobility.

Professor Koch, what is the mistake of reasoning and calculation that you are criticizing?  Read full article ... (897 words)

"The political pressure has simply become too great," says an ex-development director of a German premium manufacturer on the subject of the combustion engine. Currently announced by Audi, this decision will change the car market dramatically. "The decision was obviously made under pressure from VW boss Herbert Diess, who wants to switch the entire group to electricity."

The decision will fall on Audi because it is also suggesting to current Audi customers that they are backing the wrong horse if they still buy an Audi internal combustion engine today. Audi customers would feel abandoned, even betrayed, by their company.  Read full article ... (639 words)

Audi has now announced the end of the combustion engine. Regardless of whether you think it's great or bad: In the future, bans on internal combustion engines will be rampant around the world. An overview noted by Harald Kaiser.

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"Instead of practicing gender-speaking, we should better concentrate on the further development of our vehicles, the lead through technology," complains a not insignificant Audi man from the development department. He is not the only one who thinks the Audiian spelling is "the greatest nonsense since the introduction of the defeat device in group engines". A VW employee even feels discriminated against and has filed a lawsuit against the gender language prescribed by HR director Sabine Maaßen at the regional court in Ingolstadt.  Read full article ... (432 words)