Merkel says diesel bans to be avoided as clean-air aid doubled

Bloomberg

Chancellor Angela Merkel said German authorities are committed to avoiding city driving bans for diesel cars and pledged to double a federal clean-air fund to 1 billion euros.
Merkel sought to address fallout from Germany’s diesel scandal during a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, a day after her main election opponent pressed her in a television debate to step up her response. Baden-Wuerttemberg premier Winfried Kretschmann, whose state is home to Mercedes and Porsche cars, urged Merkel to press foreign automakers to submit to the same diesel-engine scrutiny as German manufacturers.
The German leader hosted leaders of 80 towns and cities as well as state governments to seek ways to lower diesel emissions without the need for outright driving bans, which some municipalities and courts have threatened. The aid money is meant to fund measures from purchases of electric buses for mass transit to improving bicycle infrastructure.
“All of us oppose blanket driving bans for particular kinds of engines or passenger-car types,” Merkel told reporters. “We want to exhaust every option to avert such bans. The clock is ticking and we all know it requires a big push.”
Merkel, who’s running for a fourth term in Germany’s September 24 election, said she plans to hold talks with foreign companies, following on to a “diesel summit” with German automakers in August.
“We need solutions quickly, at least in Bavaria,” Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said. “Otherwise, courts will ban diesel vehicles.”
In her only televised clash with Martin Schulz, her Social Democratic challenger, Merkel expressed outrage against auto executives, saying they had undermined a pillar of Germany’s export economy. Asked by a debate moderator why she had appeared to go too easy on carmakers, Merkel responded that measures should go beyond the software upgrades already negotiated with the industry.
Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG agreed last month to upgrade more than 5 million diesel cars in Germany in a bid to salvage their beleaguered diesel technology and draw a line under an emissions cheating scandal that shows no signs of abating after nearly two years.