German Manufacturers Stop Functionality to try to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Opinion Piece by Joshua Speed, Business Development Manager at Wing Mirror Man, Headlamps Direct & Window Regulator Man, all part of Buy It Online Limited.

German Manufacturers stop functionality to try to reduce carbon emissions

The latest example of the attack on car drivers and the constant bullying of drivers to buy an electric vehicle rather than retain a petrol or diesel car is being seen in Germany with car manufacturers Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.

In a bid to further kowtow to Germany’s strict emissions law, VW and Mercedes-Benz are ending a number of automatic functions in their petrol or diesel vehicles. 

For example, they have stopped the heaters in their vehicles coming on automatically in order to thaw a frosty front and rear window first thing in the morning when people are getting into their cars to go to work. 

Now, drivers have to switch on their heaters manually when they get in the vehicle despite sensors on the windows detecting that there is frost on them. The manufacturers have done this because they say that having heaters coming on automatically, in this instance, is contributing to the emissions of these vehicles. 

Likewise, for heated seats and heated steering wheels. Drivers have to put heated seats on manually now rather than have them come on automatically via a temperature sensor. Whilst these restrictions only affect drivers in Germany at the moment, it is expected that they will be introduced to vehicles for the UK market in the near future.  

This is all to make it as uncomfortable as possible for drivers of petrol or diesel cars, so that we all give up and buy electric cars. (No one has forgotten that the VW Group had to pay a fine of up to 300 million euros not so long ago for ‘gaming’ the emissions of their vehicles for a number of years. Oh, the irony). 

I would anticipate that the other German manufacturers, Audi and BMW, will follow suit soon and remove these automatic functions, too.

Then, in due course, this will be copied by other, if not all, manufacturers and the removal of automatic functions will become the ‘standard’ in vehicles across all countries - including the UK. I don’t see us escaping this switching off of many automatic functions in a vain attempt to save ‘emissions’.  

It’s quite clear that the German Government and car manufacturers, VW and Mercedes Benz, are in cahoots in trying to incentivise drivers to buy electric vehicles OR at least create a burden on those drivers that don’t want to buy an electric car by making it as uncomfortable as possible to continue to drive a petrol or diesel car. 

The UK Government and car manufacturers over here are also following that same carrot and stick approach - by making petrol or diesel so expensive with ridiculous levels of fuel duty. To date, the Government has been giving an incentive to those buying an electric car by offering to not levy any road tax on electric cars. However, the Government has just announced in the November Autumn Statement that it will soon backtrack on this commitment and will, after all, make drivers of electric vehicles pay road tax. (Who said we could ever trust what our Government says)?

The relative good news for UK drivers is that our emissions laws are not as strict as those in Germany and so VW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles manufactured for the UK market shouldn’t, at least for the moment, be affected. 

But there are also wider forces at play to bully the petrol and diesel driver both in Germany and the UK. Car manufacturers are reverse engineering vehicles. A vehicle which is big, fast, heavy, and comfortable-to-drive is not made any more (e.g. the Audi R8 and Lamborghini Huracan are being discontinued next year). Instead, vehicles are now lightweight, hollow and are made out of cheaper materials - and they break down more easily. This is a deliberate strategy to encourage us all to make the switch to electric. 

But people are not buying electric vehicles at the rate that the Government and car manufacturers expected or want. (In the same way that households are not getting thermal pumps and heat exchanges).

We all know that mining lithium for electric car batteries is, on its own, completely non-environmentally friendly. See this excellent video: https://www.facebook.com/reel/5876478479063141 (Batteries deplete, too, and eventually need to be disposed of - in landfill).

Other interesting facts about lithium batteries: China accounts for roughly 60% of the world’s lithium chemical supply according to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2022 report. And it contributes about 22% of the world’s carbon emissions with the USA contributing around 15% and the UK only 1%!

And Russia, who has been bullying overdependent Germany and other EU countries since its invasion of Ukraine, has 10% of the world’s reserves of lithium. 

Talk about being potentially reliant on our enemies for lithium!

Anyway, I believe that these automatic functions in cars should be retained as they don’t make much of a difference in reducing air pollutants. 

It is simply virtue signalling by the car manufacturers to go along with these changes to petrol and diesel vehicles which often mean a less comfortable experience for drivers and passengers.

Who doesn’t want to get into a car which has had the heater on for a few minutes and so they are comfortable when coming out of the house first thing in a morning - particularly when it can be dark, wet and cold in the winter months?

Likewise, who doesn’t want their windows to be de-iced - before getting into their vehicle - again, whilst it’s cold and horrible first thing in the morning? 

We are all for ways to improve air quality but sometimes there seems to be measures that just reduce the convenience and comfort of drivers and passengers without giving huge benefits in terms of reducing pollutants. 

What’s going to contribute significantly MORE to the world’s carbon emissions? Cars automatically switching on a window heater, seat heater or steering wheel for a few minutes whilst you are on your way to work in a morning OR say Apple manufacturing 30 million iPhones a year - in China (the world’s biggest polluter) or Coca Cola draining entire lakes in India to make their black fizzy liquid? Let’s have some sense of proportion here, please.

We say: stop nit-picking, and work on other ways to reduce car emissions that don’t impact drivers’ convenience and comfort. 

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