Merkel: German Cars Need to 'Go Green' to Compete
Posted on 12 January 2009 | 0 Comments
Tags:
Germany,
Automotive Industry,
Government Policy
BERLIN (AFP) — Germany's renowned car industry must start producing cleaner, more innovative models if it hopes to remain competitive, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published Sunday.
Merkel told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that the sector that invented the world's first automobile more than a century ago must remain on the cutting edge by developing "green" models.
She said her government was willing to help by financing research that could be used in the development of more innovative cars and trucks but offered no details.
"Now Germany is in a new kind of competition to see whether its industry can produce the model of the 21st century," Merkel said.
She said there would be fresh help for the ailing automobile industry in a new 50-billion-euro (67-billion-dollar) stimulus package to be finalised this week, possibly in the form of car tax relief pegged to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
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