Germany weighs joint fund with carmakers to refit diesel autos - report
The German government is considering creating a joint fund with carmakers to pay for advanced exhaust systems that make diesel cars cleaner, reports German weekly Der Spiegel. The fund would back the hardware retrofitting of a large part of Germany鈥檚 15 million diesel cars with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, particularly those slated for export to the US - where tougher pollutant limits exist. Initially, retrofitting would be done in areas at risk of possible driving bans, such as Stuttgart, the Rhine-Main region, and Munich. Carmakers could contribute 5 billion euros to the fund, which would also include taxpayer money, writes Der Spiegel. A German finance ministry spokesman dismissed Spiegel鈥檚 report, however, saying the programme was 鈥渘ot known in the Federal Ministry of Finance,鈥� and stressing that it was not a 鈥減riority measure鈥� in the new government鈥檚 coalition agreement and had therefore not been funded, according to RP Online. Neither the federal government's nor the transport ministry's press office responded to the 威力彩玩法's request for comment.
Find a short online version of the Spiegel article in German , the RP Online article in German and a Reuters article in English .
For background, read the 威力彩玩法 factsheet Diesel driving bans in Germany 鈥� The Q&A.