There is nothing against becoming a pioneer of innovation. But even there, the Americans are far ahead of us, see Tesla. BMW is the only one who has seriously invested in e-mobility in this area at all. And even there with the handbrake on. People worldwide are clamoring for Teslas, even though electric cars find no sales here.
And unfortunately, it is the same with batteries. The large battery factories are currently being built in the Nevada desert... by whom? By Tesla... who at the same time are also bringing the cheapest battery to the market.
In Germany, the trend was simply missed for a long time. But now we are paying the price for it. In the USA, it works a bit differently...
Where is the air in Germany significantly cleaner? I mean that seriously. I have not noticed that. Definitely near forests. But in metropolitan areas? Even as a child, I can remember warnings of high ozone levels and nowadays we have more and more cities with fine dust alarms.
I am absolutely in favor of better air and cleaning exhaust gases. But for me, that also includes a worldwide commitment, and not silo thinking as we practice it in Germany. Here we shut down nuclear power plants, but in Belgium, France, Poland, etc., new ones are being built. Is the operation there more environmentally friendly and safer?? Certainly not. And we force drivers to switch to buses and trains due to fine dust pollution, but at the same time we allow every homeowner to have their own fireplace - without filters. Is that sensible? There is clearly a lack of clear strategy here.