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Ready for controversy:
Volkswagen boss
Herbert Diess
Photo:
Sebastian Priebe / imago images / regios24
New on Twitter,
Herbert Diess
(62)
plunges
into the feud.
Thomas Bareiß
(45), Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, does not
like the clear commitment of the Volkswagen Group CEO for battery-powered electric cars - and against the alternative with hydrogen drive
.
"Are you serious?" Said the CDU politician on Thursday at Diess.
The manager, who has been on Twitter since December, shared blogger Robin Engelhardt's criticism of a study according to which Germans would rather buy hydrogen than battery cars.
Bareiß explains the current minimum sales figures for hydrogen cars with the fact that "e.g. @VWGroup unfortunately does not manage to meet this customer request".
In another post, Bareiß followed up with criticism of battery-powered vehicles.
He regards the fact that electric cars are reported with zero CO2 emissions as "manipulated information" - a swipe at the federal and European Union's own policies.
In order to promote electric cars, for example, they count as climate-neutral when it comes to fleet destinations - regardless of how much CO2 is actually released for power generation or the production of batteries.
There are numerous studies with different assumptions and results on the actual climate balance.
However, it also applies to other types of drive that only the emissions of the vehicle itself are measured.
Thomas Bareiß prides himself on being the originator of the national strategy to use green hydrogen - that is, generated with renewable energy - primarily in industry, but also in transport.
And for the MP from Baden-Württemberg, it also seems to be a question of personal conviction.
Sometimes he writes, "without fuel cells there will be no efficient, high-performance and climate-friendly mobility", sometimes, "the criticism of fuel cell cars is collapsing".
Despite the energy losses due to the double conversion of electricity into hydrogen and back into electricity for the electric motor, the technology is overall the cleanest and most efficient solution.
Diess adds: "Green hydrogen shouldn't end up in cars"
The Volkswagen Group has long since officially declared this debate to be decided - and under Diess' leadership has dedicated itself entirely to battery models.
Volkswagen is now investing only minimally in hydrogen technology, but an impressive 35 billion euros are planned for the battery offensive by 2025.
Without going into Bareiß directly, Herbert Diess emphasized the clear position again in English: It was "time for politicians to accept science: Green hydrogen is needed for steel, chemistry, aviation ... and shouldn't end up in cars. A lot too expensive, inefficient, slow and difficult to roll out and transport. "
And finally, the market shows that there are no hydrogen cars in sight.
This is almost reminiscent of Diess' colleague Elon Musk (49) from Tesla, who repeatedly blasphemed about fuel cells as "fool cells".
The exchange of blows does not seem to mark a break between Berlin and Wolfsburg.
On Wednesday, Diess praised the new bills for autonomous driving: "Well done,
Andi Scheuer
!"
The Minister of Transport rarely hears such words.
ak
