VDA President and the Green Party’s leading candidate take the stage on behalf of sustainability at the IAA: Trittin and Wissmann call for a market incentive program for electric cars

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany-(Business Wire)-September 22, 2009 - The record of the German auto industry with regard to climate protection and CO₂ reduction was the focus of the first broadcast from the IAA’s “Sustainability Forum” in Frankfurt. On Friday, the front-running candidate from the joint Alliance90/Green Party for the elections to the Bundestag [German Federal Parliament], Jürgen Trittin, and the President of Germany’s Automobile Industry Federation (Verband der Automobilindustrie,VDA), Matthias Wissmann, debated the future of mobility.

Trittin urged the German auto industry to meet its own standards and to intensify its efforts to minimize climate change. „The example already set today by a few top-class German manufacturers in reducing CO₂ emissions, must now be carried through to the volume market and for all models“, demanded the Green Party’s top candidate. It is particularly in alternative power-sources that research and development must be pushed forward even more rapidly, Trittin went on to say. „Our objective must be to keep car-making jobs in Germany. And that will only happen if we make more effort to catch up on our lag in research.“ At the same time Trittin called for a massive program of market incentives for electric vehicles, following the example of France and the USA.

The VDA’s President also described the intelligent promotion of electric cars as both sensible and desirable. „The courage of the public to adopt new technologies has to be rewarded. But this promotion must be open to all technologies – we must also push ahead with hydrogen powered engines and fuel-cells.“ Wissmann stressed that Germany is already a world leader in research into lithium-ion battery technology. „However, in the end it is the customer who decides what kind of car to buy. That is why, in every segment of the auto market – from the mini to the people-carrier – we need to offer the most environmentally friendly choice of vehicles“, said Wissmann. „According to the official figures from the Federal Department of Road Transport, in nine out of ten segments, the German makes have lower CO₂ figures than imported makes – and in six out of ten segments German models actually take first place as ‚CO₂ champion’. This ‚pole position’ is what we want to build on in the future“, the VDA President explained.

A recording the broadcast was transmitted on the Phoenix TV channel on Monday, 21st September 2009, at 4.15 p.m.

The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.

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