Germany wants to push its citizens to buy more environmentally friendly cars. The country’s federal council a.k.a the Bundesrat has passed a resolution calling for a ban on new internal combustion engine cars by 2030. Once the ban is enforced, citizens will only be allowed to buy a zero-emissions car, it won’t matter if it runs on a hydrogen fuel cell or electricity, it just can’t have an internal combustion engine.
Germany can enforce laws in its country but it can’t do that for the entire European Union. The Bundesrat has called on the European Commission to implement this ban across the entire European Union. There’s a real possibility of that happening as Germany is one of the strongest and most influential nations in the bloc and tends to shape EU policy.
The country will likely consider providing incentives to customers who pick up zero-emissions cars, what those incentives are going to be remains unknown at this point, but it’s possible that the incentives may include tax breaks.
Germany has a robust automotive industry as its manufacturers make some of the most sought-after cars in the world. Auto giants such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW are all working on electric cars so they are already preparing for the future that the representatives are charting out.