In key meeting, Germans come to praise diesel, not to bury it

BERLIN — Britain and France want to end the sale of diesel cars. Madrid and Athens are banning them. Automakers like Volvo are switching to electric engines.

In Germany, those developments have created something akin to a national emergency, threatening an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people.

But while others have increased investment in electric cars and pushed tougher rules against diesel itself, German auto executives and political leaders meeting in Berlin on Wednesday appeared determined to rescue diesel, not to hasten its death.

They announced plans to update the software in 5 million cars to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, the byproduct of diesel most harmful to human health. But most of the measures had already been announced, while politicians and automotive executives alike rejected calls by environmental groups to force carmakers to add antipollution hardware like better catalytic converters.

“The government’s chumminess with the auto industry continues,” Oliver Krischer, a leader of the opposition Green Party, said in a statement Wednesday. “While China, California, Norway and many others are tackling electromobility, the government is turning Germany into a diesel museum.”

In fact, as far as auto industry leaders were concerned on Wednesday, diesel remained central to their ambitions.

“Future mobility will definitely depend on state-of-the-art diesels as well,” Harald Krüger, chief executive of BMW, said in a statement. The carmaker said it would offer a bonus of up to $2,360 to anyone who trades in an older diesel vehicle for a new BMW electric or hybrid car — or a diesel that meets the latest emissions standards.

Wednesday’s meeting between ministers, state leaders and car company chiefs — described as a “diesel summit” — was an attempt to contain a crisis of confidence that threatens Germany’s most important industry, and perhaps even its national identity, ahead of elections next month.

Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW confront growing public outrage domestically and overseas for underplaying the health effects of diesel fumes and, in at least some cases, misleading customers about how much harmful nitrogen oxides their cars produce in everyday use.

Leaders of both major parties, meanwhile, face criticism that they have been too cozy with carmakers, blocking stricter European Union regulation of diesel emissions while providing tax breaks on diesel fuel.

Merkel is under particular pressure ahead of the election on Sept. 24, in which she is seeking a fourth term. The chancellor has a long record of advocating for the auto industry, once even complaining about California’s strict limits on vehicle emissions while visiting then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Vehicles are Germany’s single most important export and, in many parts of the world, the most visible symbol of German engineering prowess. Within the country, BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes and Porsches are a source of considerable pride and an essential part of the postwar national self-image.

Diesels are particularly important to German carmakers, and the technology has a long history — Rudolf Diesel, a German, invented the diesel engine. Because of diesel’s superior fuel economy today, it is a popular option with buyers of the large luxury cars that are profit centers for the industry. Until recently, diesels outsold gasoline cars in Europe, thanks in part to de facto subsidies.

But their sales have been plummeting amid growing awareness that diesel exhaust causes serious lung ailments, including asthma and cancer. In July, sales of diesels in Germany fell 13 percent compared with a year earlier, according to government figures published on Wednesday.

A further impediment to sales is that numerous cities around Europe, including BMW’s home of Munich, are considering bans on older diesel cars. The city governments of Madrid and Athens, have already said they will ban diesels altogether in 2025. Britain and France have said they want to end sales of new diesel vehicles by 2040.

Last week, a lower court judge in Stuttgart ruled that a ban on diesels in the city center was the only way to address nitrogen oxide pollution that frequently exceeded levels considered acceptable. If affirmed on appeal, the decision could pave the way for widespread diesel bans.

Moves like those have left many diesel owners fearing that the resale value of their vehicles will plummet.

A sense of betrayal has deepened in Germany in recent weeks following reports that Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler may have secretly agreed to cut corners on emissions equipment to save money.

The carmakers could face a wave of financial penalties if it is proved that they colluded to minimize how much money they spent on emissions equipment. Volkswagen has already agreed to pay more than $22 billion in the United States in fines and settlements after admitting that it had programmed diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests.

In the U.S. and Canada, lawyers have already filed suits claiming that collusion among the automakers did harm to buyers of German cars.