inner-city driving bans

The likelihood of inner-city driving bans for certain diesel cars had already
increased prior to the Leipzig ruling. A patchwork of different local regulations is
hardly desirable – for persons, at least, who have no fundamental misgiving
about cars.

What if the problem were resolved over time? German policymakers
could, for instance, decide to introduce a Blue Badge for low-emission diesel
cars from 20XX onwards. Measuring the respective emission values in real-
driving situations would be compulsory, as well as emission tests in the context
of the general inspection. To protect legitimate expectations of the owners and
avoid socio-political frictions, the introduction could be accompanied by an
appropriate transitional period for older cars. Recently, the CDU also brought
into play higher carmakers’ premiums for customers switching to lower-emission
cars (alongside the already decided software update).

When the transitional period comes to an end, the market share of alternative drive technologies
should have also increased (further), thanks to the enhanced competitiveness
vis-à-vis diesel and petrol-driven cars.