The polls of the Greens and the sympathy ratings for Annalena Baerbock make CDU and SPD nervous.

Rightly so, but both want to conquer the Chancellery in the fall.

An outbid competition is emerging.

The choice comes at a time when the feeling that more needs to be done for the environment has become part of society.

The Greens, otherwise advocates of speed limits, penetrate easily with their unchecked climate protection.

Aircraft that are supposed to disappear over short distances are now being targeted again, although everyone knows that the train is a good, but by no means a perfect alternative.

If it were, it would simply prevail in the competition.

Holger Appel

Editor in business, responsible for "Technology and Engine".

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    While the newly ignited flight debate may soon subside, the one about the car is likely to become even more heated. It is permanently under observation, not to say under fire. Of course there are things from cruise ships to boilers that are worth taking care of as well. But nothing is more attractive on the attention scale than the car. This is no wonder, as it has a central role: It gives millions of people freedom and joy and gives hundreds of thousands of jobs. Anyone who denounces it must therefore not only put bans in the room, but also find answers. There is a lack of that.

    In cities, cars are increasingly getting in their own way. Everyone can feel it, the streets are blocked, traffic slows down. What is often lacking is the courage to do more than paint a few lines on the road and then designate it as a cycle path. If new buildings are being built, the use of the area for buildings has priority over a safe path for pedestrians and cyclists. Electric cars could do something for the air, which of course has been improving for years. Technical progress is often hidden, but it can be seen and felt. Smoking exhausts have long ceased to exist. It is all the more astonishing that politicians from Berlin to Brussels believe they have more specialist knowledge than engineers.The stricter emissions regulations emerging under the keywords Green Deal and EU 7 almost inevitably lead away from the internal combustion engine and towards electromobility.

    Affordable mobility is at risk

    Technology openness is a foreign word at government offices, as is economy. Because it would be in the sense of a social market economy if the better product prevailed. The electric car can currently only be bought as a prestige object in affluent milieus or with a subsidy of 10,000 euros. To make the dimension clear: the cheapest electric car is the Dacia Spring. The rudimentarily equipped model costs 21,000 euros before subsidies. The roughly comparable model Sandero with a petrol engine is priced at 9,000 euros. The rhetorical question here is not only whether buyers would be willing to pay the premium, which is mainly caused by the battery costs. Social dimensions are also revealed if freedom of movement is not to become a privilege for high earners. Affordable mobility is at risk. And don't tell anyonethere is the S-Bahn. Rain, children, weekend shopping or living in the country are good arguments for your own car. Or simply the fun of it, which hardly anyone dares to speak openly anymore.

    The energy expenditure for the production of the batteries, which leads to a significant CO2 backpack, is hidden. There are also other hurdles that still exist: as chic as local emission-free and seamless acceleration are in urban surroundings, long-distance journeys are so sobering. Is a Porsche that has to go to the charging station at 150 km / h after 250 kilometers still a Porsche? Ranges and loading times have so far been something for fans, not for the masses. Technology will make progress, but the rare, if not unique, case now arises that a product with more disadvantages than advantages should prevail. And none of this is of any use to the climate without CO2-neutral electricity generation. But how Germany in particular should generate all of its energy from sun, wind and water remains unanswered.

    The industry is hesitantly working on synthetic fuel or hydrogen. She does not have endless resources. She has to take care of enough batteries and fight against a lack of chips. It has to deal with quantum technology and fight off new competitors. There are (once again) fateful years ahead of Europe's auto industry. Politicians have to give it the air - with all justified attention to ecology - to continue to develop that prosperity in the future, which more and more citizens who get used to state hands see as given. We want to continue building and driving joyful cars in this country, right?