2007: The Merkel failure beginsThe first appeal to Merkel to prevent the German car industry from resting on its laurels and falling behind was made on January 31, 2007.In 2007, lithium batteries for cars were already widely known, but still very expensive. Plug-in hybrids therefore appeared to be the ideal solution. Covering 80% of journeys with an electric range of 100 km and a combustion engine for the remaining 20%. Considering the 80% savings potential of plug-in hybrids, the EU CO2 targets for the car industry seem rather minimalistic. At the beginning of 2007, plug-in hybrids were only known to a few specialists, but this changed at the IAA 2007. Opel presented the Flextreme and Angela Merkel took a seat in it during her tour of the trade fair. The Flextreme was the predecessor of the Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt.
New technology is much easier to accommodate in high-priced vehicles than in the low-cost segment. It would therefore have been logical to support the high-priced German car manufacturers by lobbying for the lowest possible CO2 limit. Angela Merkel's government did the exact opposite and sent Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel to Brussels to complain that the CO2 limits were far too low for German premium manufacturers. | ||||||
