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The Auto Show opens its doors this Thursday, September 12 to professionals in Frankfurt, before the opening Saturday to the general public. A pillar of German industry for decades, the automobile is now an Achilles heel in the face of degraded economic conditions and declining sales.
Angela Merkel inaugurated Thursday the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA). The opportunity to send several messages to this industry flagship in Germany. " We never really know how the revolutions will unfold, and that's why we have to organize them in the most linear way possible, " said the German Chancellor. However, she warned, " it would be a mistake to think that we could propose state subsidy programs that correspond to the innovations of the next ten years " in terms of reducing CO2 emissions .
Herculean task
A must-see event, the embodiment of the power of the German automotive industry, the IAA is in crisis, deserted by many builders. In Germany, the automobile and its hundreds of thousands of jobs are no longer sacred. Industrialists and politicians are under pressure to act against global warming, in a context marked by the success of the events " Fridays for future " and the breakthrough of the Greens in elections.
The automotive industry has " a huge task ahead of it, " reducing CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030, Angela Merkel said.
This turn is very expensive and very uncertain to take
Bernard Jullien, automotive specialist, lecturer in economics at the University of Bordeaux 12/09/2019 - by Agnieszka Kumor
Volkswagen still pinned
Achieving this goal is partly due to the diversification of the automotive industry, with the development of electric motors. But this shift has a " price ", said the Chancellor. It requires the development of new infrastructures. " The reliability of the charging infrastructure [batteries] is of paramount importance for the success of electro-mobility, " she said, pointing out that the current 20,000 charging points in Germany were " far from sufficient ".
Meeting this challenge is " a herculean task for you and for us, " Angela Merkel told car manufacturers.
The opening of the show comes in addition when Volkswagen is again suspected of cheating on a generation of diesel engines hitherto not concerned by the scandal, according to the public channel SWR. The manufacturer has denied any manipulation. The manufacturer remains weakened by the " dieselgate " scandal, revealed in 2015, and its potential legal consequences. Volkswagen admitted to rigging regulatory tests on 11 million vehicles sold worldwide.
(With AFP)