Too dirty, outdated, doomed to die: Things don't seem to be going well for the German car manufacturers at the moment - if we are to believe the press. But the opposite is true.

"One cannot say it often enough: One should not repeat oneself all the time!" What is a common saying among linguists seems to have not yet reached the German press. The automotive industry has fallen into disrepute - as a whole and rightly so - due to its arrogance and lack of insight. But also unfairly, because there is no "the" automotive industry in Germany. Instead, there are five German companies as well as an American and recently a French one. They exhibit completely different technical and ethical behaviors regarding the Diesel issue. Therefore, it is wrong to lump them all together in the media. Fact is: Negative media coverage about the automotive industry and its bleak future due to the dishonorable behavior of individual members or the presumed imminent death of the combustion engine, its lifeline, is currently trendy. One sensational title story throws the stone into the water, and the rest of the press pack creates the necessary waves. And there were many waves...

Even Tesla "burns"

Oh, the terrible things one had to read in recent weeks about secret cartel agreements and emission misdeeds of the automotive "Fab Five" Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen. All just to intentionally, treacherously, and above all unlawfully deceive their Diesel customers. Added to this were accusations of negligence and incompetence for failing to recognize in time the hype created by Elon Musk with his IT car brand Tesla about the electric car as a replacement for the combustion engine. Instead, they stubbornly refused to replace their proven business model based on fuel combustion that has been in place for a hundred years with Musk's model. This Musk model, which also involves combustion based on a battery-operated, electric loss generator, involves billions of dollars in shareholder money.

The ultimate threat: Driving bans

A new scandal was born and spread through the automotive village: the high level of air pollution in urban areas far exceeding any limits due to the high nitrogen oxide emissions from Diesel vehicles. Quite incidentally, the pride of German car manufacturers. And the looming threat of a general driving ban for Diesel cars attached to it. Diesel emissions, particularly nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, were identified as the main culprit for urban air pollution. Original quote from the German press: "... 10,000 people are gassed every year...". It couldn't get more tasteless! The Stuttgart court announced in initial judgments strict driving and access bans for Diesel vehicles if there is no improvement in air quality with compliance with legal emission limits by the end of 2017. Similar to what the Paris city administration had already demonstrated with access restrictions for older Diesel cars up to the year 2001 starting in 2020. At the subsequent Berlin Diesel Environmental Summit, at the behest of the car manufacturers, "soft" measures such as purchase incentives for exchanging old Diesel cars and software updates for 5.2 million Euro-5 and Euro-6 Diesel cars were decided, while hardware improvements through retrofitting catalytic converters were rejected. According to the press, the decisions were a farce. The German Environmental Aid (DUH) is convinced: "Driving bans will definitely come with the existing commitments from industry and politics - because the air quality in cities will hardly improve." According to independent expert opinions, this is certainly the case! The consequences were foreseeable: From all sides, the death knell for the Diesel engine was being sounded even louder. The uncertain consumers distanced themselves from Diesel cars, as once Mr. Piëch distanced himself from Mr. Winterkorn. The Diesel market share plummeted from 50 percent to 40 percent in just a few months. This threatened the Diesel engine with extinction.

"... for they know not what they do"

But not only for the Diesel, but for the combustion engine as a whole. Because precisely in the summer of 2017, the British Parliament decided on a general ban on any combustion engines in the United Kingdom from 2040. Norway followed with the same registration ban for combustion engine new cars from 2025. India from 2030. This may have reminded Bible-savvy and highly qualified automotive engineers of the last words of the Lord: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Even Chancellor Angela Merkel declared in August that the exit from the combustion engine is fundamentally correct. However, she wisely did not commit to a specific date: "I cannot give a precise year yet, but the approach is correct." Furthermore, she stated: "... if we invest quickly in even more charging infrastructure and technology for electric cars, a general transition will be structurally possible!" This was different on May 3, 2010, at the founding of the National Platform for Electric Mobility (NPE) as an advisory body to the German government for promoting electric mobility. At that time, the government set a target of having 1 million electric cars on Germany's roads by the year 2020.

The raw numbers

Reality looks different. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), there were 45,803,560 passenger cars in Germany on January 1, 2017. The share of gasoline cars was 65.5 percent, Diesel cars 32.9 percent, and alternative propulsion systems accounted for 1.6 percent in total. Only 22,609 vehicles had a pure electric drive. The stock of hybrid cars (including plug-ins) amounted to 165,405 vehicles. Politics and industry experts can be mistaken... These are the rough reasons for the blanket condemnation of a flagship industry - due to the unethical and unlawful misconduct of individual members and their proven arrogance. "I cannot see any misconduct by management!", said VW CEO Matthias Müller at the Berlin Diesel Summit. If everything were to happen as the media anticipates and laments, it would mean the downfall of the German automotive industry and also the international strength of the German economy. According to an Ifo study, solely in the industry itself, 600,000 jobs, four-fifths, depend on the combustion engine. To put it simply, we would be, in terms of emissions, healthy, but most importantly, without work. It is high time to dismantle the mountain of public and media misinformation, falsehoods, ideological prejudices, and "alternative facts". The intention is to take an economically rational look at the future of mobile drive technology and the industry without bias. The author aims for facts, not wishful thinking and deception. This will be achieved in five theses. One now, the other four in another text next Monday. Thesis 1: "The era of Diesel is coming to an end" No! Contrary to what Ferdinand Dudenhöffer says, Diesel is not doomed. It is alive and will even experience a renaissance. Because in all technical and ecological aspects, it is far superior to gasoline engines - except in terms of production costs. Firstly, the CO2 emissions are 30 percent lower than gasoline engines. Secondly, thanks to the technical progress in the so-called SCR catalytic converter technology (AdBlue, urea), the latest generation of Diesels achieves even lower nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions than required by law with Euro-6d, even without a thermal window. At Daimler, this engine was developed under the designation OM 654 with a billion-dollar effort and is now being installed. Other manufacturers are following suit - competition makes it possible! Conclusion: Winfried Kretschmann is right: "There is a clean Diesel!" The urban emission problem is not the new Diesel cars with modern emission control but the "legacy" in the form of an old stock of 15 million Diesel vehicles. If one wants to significantly improve urban emissions in line with court decisions by early 2018, selective driving bans cannot be avoided. In my opinion, they are "without alternative". Software solutions in the emission electronics alone are not sufficient. [Article published on n-tv.de]