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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

The pollution-cheating scandal that has engulfed auto giant Volkswagen is turning up the heat on the German government [phys.org] to make more determined headway in its self-declared "electromobility" goals, analysts say.

The "bitter irony" of the scam that has rocked the automobile sector around the world and plunged the once-respected carmaker into a major crisis, is that the billions of euros VW could potentially face in fines "could have been used to finance an entire electric car programme," complained Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks recently.

Over the past six years, Berlin has put up 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for research into an electric car, the minister pointed out. And her ministry is looking into a series of measures to promote the electric car, such as tax incentives and purchase subsidies.

Her colleague at the Economy Ministry, Sigmar Gabriel, has said he was ready to support financial incentives, without specifying what form they should take.

And he is in favour of introducing quotas for electric vehicles in the car fleets of public authorities, with the aim of boosting demand.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [wikipedia.org] was a turning point for organized labor in the United States. It looks like the Diesel scandal is shaping up to have similarly wide-ranging repercussions for the car industry in Europe.

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