Reuters reported on April 22 that Markus Duessmann, CEO of Audi, called on European automakers to stop using fossil fuels starting in 2040 and urged the expansion of renewable energy production in Bavaria, where Audi is headquartered and other locations.
“At the conference, Markus Duessmann said: As Europeans, let’s be brave and completely give up fossil fuels starting in 2040. We must put all our energy into the development of electric vehicles,” Markus Duessmann said.
In June 2021, Klaus Zellmer, a member of Volkswagen’s board of directors, said in an interview with German media that Volkswagen will exit the internal combustion engine business in Europe between 2033 and 2035, followed by halting the production of internal combustion engines in the United States and China. In Europe, Volkswagen’s target is for electric vehicles to account for 70% of total sales by 2030.
Interestingly, Oliver Zipse, CEO of BMW, previously stated that carmakers cannot only focus on the development of electric vehicles. Zipse added that internal combustion engine cars will still have a market in the future, and that vigorously developing new energy sources will result in being choked by raw materials currently controlled by several countries outside Europe.
The German government stated that its goal is to gradually phase out coal by 2030 and plans to meet all of its electricity needs through renewable energy supply by 2035.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.