Merkel Cites Trust Problem at Carmakers Ahead of Sept. 24 Vote

(Bloomberg) -- Angela Merkel, running for a fourth term as chancellor in Germany’s Sept. 24 election, reiterated that her nation’s auto sector has “seen a great loss of trust” and needs to atone for past mistakes.

Speaking on her weekly podcast released Saturday, Merkel said the industry is in a period of rapid change, and “modern drive technology is, of course, a preferred area for us to support research.” Nevertheless, “mistakes that were made must be made good again; we have a lot more to do on that front.”

The nation’s biggest industry is accused of making cars that pollute more on the road than under test conditions, and much of Merkel’s time in the run-up to the election has focused on the sector, which employs 800,000 people in Germany. Her opening campaign speech in August criticized Germany’s auto executives, and she has regularly mentioned the failures of the industry in speeches since. She’s also scheduled to open the International Motor Show in Frankfurt on Sept. 14.

Merkel has so far pledged to avoid banning diesel vehicles, arguing that the technology will become cleaner and helps reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. She didn’t address the debate over scrapping diesel in her podcast, while reiterating her view that diesel and combustion engines will still be around for decades as emission-free vehicle technology gathers pace.

“It’s not going to be a linear rise, but if it happens, it’ll be exponential, like we saw with technologies like solar energy,” Merkel said on the podcast, adding that whether the next generation of cars are electric or hydrogen-cell-powered remains to be seen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Oliver Sachgau in Munich at osachgau@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tara Patel at tpatel2@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Steve Geimann