Today I went to my usual car workshop (no longer a contractual workshop) for an oil change and inspection and got into an interesting conversation there. Since I drive a VW, I asked my “simple” master mechanic /that´s like the elites would call him), how long the VW will still be available with a combustion engine and when it won’t be. He said, probably from 2030, but that was not totally determined by the law and maybe then the transport and energy transition would develop differently than previously so dogmatically propagated in the direction of e-mobility. Unfortunately, VW and BMW decided prematurely to only produce e-cars, since the Chinese market is now more important than the German and European markets and the Chinese seem to be fully committed to e-mobility. However, the Chinese would have central government e-quotas, the systematic construction of charging stations and the associated infrastructure, especially in the cities, could also get energy by expanding coal power, nuclear power and renewable energy at the same time, while Germany would get out of these energies and  hope only for renewable energies, especially since green energies are still completely unplanned and uncertain. Quite a risk game. No risk, no fun? That’s bad enough, since he doesn’t like nuclear and coal power either, has children himself, agrees with Friday for Future that climate change is man-made and carbonization-caused, and he doesn’t want to leave his children with a climate catastrophe either. But this sole fixation on e-mobility irritates him, as he also thinks that it hasn’t been thought through and is decided more ideologically and based on gut feeling. In his opionion, there is a lack of orientation and flexibility, a kind of flexible plan with options. He would first of all be in favor of an option that is more open to all alternative technology options, which would not only be promoted by the market alone, but also by the state, but also the state should not ultimately decide the outcome. But even with the supply chains, everything is still unclear in terms of e-mobility, but also, admittedly, with synthetic fuels or hydrogen technology – from the raw materials from lithium to rare earths for any motors, batteries and motorsand that apparently there is not even clearly flexible strategy with options on the drawing board of the German goverment. The Japanese have positioned themselves strategically more broadly and have not yet decided that e-cars are the only option, but think of such options as hybrid cars, hydrogen cars or combustion cars with synthetic fuels and have still a more technology-open development stratgey, especially since Japan all complies with the climate protection goals and the reduction of CO emissions as goals – beyond the idea of total electricification in all areas of life and mobility, but the the cooperation between Japan and Germany in terms of hydrogen technology was very positive. It is possible that the gas and oil industry is also blocking other paths, be it synthetic fuels instead of e-mobility, as they see this as a dead end that would then lead to a rebirth of  the carbon age. Well, a bit of a conspiracy theory, but not entirely out of the question. In addition, it is a joke that cars are getting bigger and more fuel-consuming, especially since the model of the 5-liter car already existed as an ideal that could still be reduced and then this giganomism, which is not only expressed in the size of the parking space and fuel consumption, but also in all the status symbol and when people drive around with SUVs like Arnold Schwarzenegger with a Hummer, you also have to ask about their state of mind, even if he likes to have them in his garage. In addition, we would have lived beyond the means. Today, a family no longer has 1, but 2-3 and sometimes 4 cars, which makes him happy in business, but he thinks to himself: Are you cracy? As he told me there are already initial approaches to e-mobility. For example, Roche in Penzberg would have equipped its employees with e-cars, company-owned charging stations, but the problem is that you actually need a lot more charging stations and space to charge everyone or at a suitable timing. He also asks himself, if everyone does it, where will all the electricity come from? This is also a problem in winter, since the batteries would then discharge extremely quickly and become real energy suckers. Finally, I asked him, if internal combustion engines were to remain and be fueled with synthetic fuels, whether the engines would tolerate this or whether new cars would have to be designed again. He said the motors could do it, but all the rubber lines would probably need to be replaced. But he’s still finding out about it and it’s called: Learning for a lifetime. An interesting conversation with a practitioner at the front and not only children’s book author who sits in the government.and and I registered for the next technical inspection (TÜV) right away.