German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it is necessary to push for a faster transition to e-mobility at the official opening of the International Motor Show IAA in Frankfurt yesterday.
She called the structural changes necessary a “Herculean task”, both for the state and for the car industry, and therefore one that needed close collaboration.
“We can manage to have Germany be a leading force in this,” she said.
After her 90-minute tour of the motor show, Merkel said she is satisfied with the progress being made.
“I have been convinced that we are not just facing a huge shift, but that shift has already become reality,” the chancellor said.
Merkel asked the leading representatives of the industry about the developments in battery technology and autonomous driving during her tour, and said charging infrastructure had to be increased significantly, to the delight of manufacturers.
Merkel also showed her comedic side during the tour.
When presented with BMW’s plush interior design in its new iNext electric vehicle, she said: “This one is screaming for a vacuum cleaner plug.”
During her meeting with car component provider Bosch, the company head Volkmar Denner said that Bosch planned to be climate-neutral by next year.
“Are you planning on using power from renewable energy sources then, or are you going to start planting trees?” Merkel asked him.
Denner admitted that part of Bosch’s climate neutrality would be achieved with emissions trading.
Before the opening of the IAA, the heads of the workers’ councils of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen spoke out against the demonisation of the car industry for its contribution to air pollution and the ongoing scandal surrounding cheating on emissions tests.
“If you look at the current public discussion, you would think that cars are nothing but a risk. On the scale of dangers, it seems to lie somewhere between Ebola and North Korean missiles,” Bernd Osterloh, the head of VW’s workers’ council, told the newspaper Handelsblatt.
The president of the Automotive Industry Association (VDA), Bernhard Mattes, said at the opening that Germany did not need even stricter climate goals, but needed to properly implement the existing ones first.
He said that whilst the industry provided alternative technologies, the necessary infrastructure couldn’t keep up.
Yesterday the VDA said separately that Mattes will step down as head of the lobby organisation at the end of the year.
The state premier of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, said “pseudo-religious assurances of salvation” were counterproductive to changing mobility.
He said that the IAA had changed over the years, and has become a place where new concepts in mobility are being pitched and brainstormed.
Tomorrow, the motor show plans to open to the public after two days for trade visitors.
The motor show takes place amid discussions over whether the event should continue to take place at all.
Former Opel head Karl-Thomas Neumann said: “The IAA 2019 is a big flop. It is a sad shadow of its former self. There will not be an IAA in 2021.” 
He said the show did not represent the car industry accurately, and that there were too many cars on display.
Protests organised by climate activists are also planned for the weekend, as environmentalists accuse the car industry of not doing enough to shift to electric cars sooner.
Yesterday two Greenpeace protesters climbed onto cars at the Volkswagen booth, holding up posters with the words “climate killer”.
As Merkel arrived at the BMW booth, another protester was stopped and led away by security officials.
Later in the day, the head of the Green Party, Robert Habeck, visited the show and attended a panel discussion with the chief of Daimler, Ola Kaellenius.
Ahead of his visit, he told the Rheinische Post newspaper that “clear laws are necessary, stating that only emissions-free vehicles can be newly registered after 2030”.