German politicians and the car industry had tried hard to avoid having cities ban polluting cars.
Germany’s car culture is under attack. A federal court in Leipzig said Tuesday that Düsseldorf and Stuttgart can ban the dirtiest diesel cars from their streets in order to meet EU pollution standards. The verdict will have an impact across the country and deals a blow to the car worship that rules Germany’s politics, economy and lifestyle.
The car industry is Germany’s largest, and one of the reasons the country is an export juggernaut. For decades the German dream for many has meant a house in the suburbs and a well-engineered German car to make the commute to work.
But that dream is choking many cities. The EU says there are 28 urban areas in Germany persistently breaching limits for nitrogen dioxide — a pollutant largely caused by diesel engines and the main ingredient of smog.
“If public transport connections were more attractive and better, most people would shift” — Peter Liese, German MEP
Activists are starting to sue cities for failing to clean up their air, and Tuesday’s court ruling means that cities can act to ban polluting cars — a step that politicians and the industry have fought very hard to prevent. Widespread urban driving bans would demand expensive upgrades to public transport and technical changes from carmakers, plus a shift in social attitude.
“This is another huge win for people and a clear example of courts stepping in where government action is found wanting,” said James Thornton, the CEO of ClientEarth, which together with German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe has filed legal cases against several German cities breaching EU air quality standards.
The German car industry has relied on its good links with Chancellor Merkel and the German steamroller in the EU to get what it wants and avoid tiresome or expensive restrictions. In the past this has worked and many of the groups still think they can rely on this. BMW is, perhaps, ahead of the game, with active involvement in transport as a whole, mobility as a service and electric vehicles. VAG keeps its head down following diesel gate, but Mercedes Daimler appears to be in some sort of denial, still considering that diesel engines are the name of the game in the future. The fact that cities may be able to take actions which cannot be stopped by the Federal Government has now stunned them. This is despite cities elsewhere in the EU taking similar measures (eg Paris, Athens, Barcelona) and the fact that the industry was well warned that this could happen. It is this denial which is, perhaps, the most dangerous aspect for the future of the car industry. If they get this wrong, what else might they not properly predict or adapt to?