German car fans push back on climate change

‘Fridays for Horsepower’ proves popular

BERLIN • Car lovers who say they are sick of being blamed for climate change have started one of the fastest growing movements in Germany.

Calling themselves “Fridays for Horsepower,” they have signed up more than 566,000 members — more than the total membership of the country’s biggest political party.

Their critics have dismissed them as climate change deniers, but Josh Buchner, a part-british Ford enthusiast who is one of the group’s co-founders, insists that is not the case.

“We chose the name in response to Fridays for Future,” he says, referring to Greta Thunberg’s school strikes movement. “But our demands are not far from those of Fridays for Future.”

He says Fridays for Horsepower is committed to tackling climate change by making car emissions cleaner.

“The difference is our plan to achieve the goals is rational and based on science and technology.” The 42-year-old father of three was born to British parents and adopted by a German couple.

Fridays for Horsepower started when he and a few friends tried to set up a “fun group” on Facebook to exchange ideas.

“Suddenly, we had 500,000 members within two days. We quickly realized that we had hit a social nerve and that with this size, the group would become politically relevant.”

It has been a tough couple of years for German car enthusiasts. Diesel cars have already been banned from a number of city centres in an attempt to get air pollution under control, and following a horrific accident in Berlin there are calls to ban large SUVS.

A new climate package agreed by Angela Merkel’s government will impose a tax on carbon emissions.

There is talk of breaking the last taboo of German life and imposing a speed limit on the autobahns.

But Buchner says drivers are being unfairly targeted. “The driver was deliberately made a scapegoat, since almost everyone relies on their car,” he says. “Germany is responsible for around 2.3 per cent of CO2 emissions worldwide. Private transport produces less than industrial and household energy use.

“The new technologies for combustion engines are very clean. CO2 emissions have been falling steadily since 1995.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Buchner is a fan of public transport. He says he wouldn’t dream of driving in a big city such as London or Berlin. But he argues the anti-car movement is being driven by city dwellers who do not take account of the realities of life in smaller towns and villages. Buchner lives in Speyer, a small town in southwestern Germany.

“It’s practically impossible to live without a car in small towns,” he says.

“There isn’t enough public transport.”

But his love of cars goes deeper than practicalities. He has been involved in the engine tuning scene since 1995, and manages the German branches of two British Ford enthusiasts’ organizations.

Merkel’s government has thrown its support behind the electric car. Volkswagen recently opened Europe’s first mass production line exclusively making electric cars.

But Buchner does not believe the electric car is the future. “Obtaining the raw materials lithium and cobalt for electric vehicles is anything but environmentally friendly,” he says.

“It destroys the environment. I could not drive an electric car with a clear conscience knowing that children had to work in terrible conditions in cobalt mines to make it, or that drinking water is running out in Chile because of it.

“Forests that could convert CO2 into oxygen are being cut down to obtain the raw materials required for car batteries.

“It’s insane. Electric mobility only shifts the environmental problem abroad. This is a global problem that needs a global solution.”

Fridays for Horsepower is calling on the authorities to focus instead on developing better synthetic and bio fuels. Synthetic fuels are already in development that cause far fewer harmful emissions than existing fuels, says Buchner. “With these fuels, you can continue using existing vehicles.”