Federal government ministers want motorists to switch to electric vehicles. In doing so, they never miss an opportunity to point out the associated climate protection and, more recently, to reduce dependence on Russian energy sources. To this end, the government encouraged motorists to buy an electric vehicle with lavish subsidies. With so many arguments, one would assume that the politicians would set an example. But far from it. The majority of ministers in the traffic light government still drive official cars with combustion engines.
Only two federal government ministers drive a fully electric vehicle
Just two members of the government cabinet drive a fully electric official car. These are Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, who drives an Audi e-Tron, and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, with her Mercedes-Benz EQC. The German Environmental Aid regularly checks the vehicle fleets of federal ministers. Now the DUH has given the new government of the traffic lights a bad report card. The managing director of DUH Barbara Metz states: “Our official car check exposes the self-proclaimed climate government”. According to Metz, most of the ministers only give themselves a green coat of paint for their official cars.
Image: Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
DUH was able to identify marginal progress compared to the last review. In the last review before the Bundestag elections, all ministers of the Grand Coalition still received a red card. Now at least two ministers have received a green card. The politicians now argue with delivery problems like any normal citizen would have. Delivery problems like normal citizens would have: For example, the Minister for Family Affairs, Lisa Paus, points out that her ordered BMW i4 has not yet been delivered.
Development Minister Svenja Schulze has switched from her purely electric official car from the previous government to a plug-in hybrid.
Preach water and drink wine
The most common model among ministers’ official cars is an Audi A8 hybrid. According to DUH, this model emits 283 grams per kilometre in real-world driving. That is more than three times the permissible fleet value of 95 grams per kilometre, but still the tip of the iceberg. Construction Minister Klara Geywitz occupies the tip of the iceberg with her BMW 7 Series. According to DUH, the vehicle with a petrol engine has CO₂ emissions of a good 330 grams per kilometre in real driving conditions. It is also noteworthy that plug-in hybrids are used the most. This concept was no ,longer classified as climate-friendly by the new government and is also no longer to be subsidised
The DUH has excluded ministers who drive armoured official cars from the analysis. The armoured official car of the Federal Chancellor already has a standard value of 411 grams of CO₂ per kilometre. Consumption in real driving conditions, however, is likely to be many times higher.
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