Too soon to bury the combustion engine, German minister says

Germany's transport minister Alexander Dobrindt announced a fund worth hundreds of millions of euros to help cities to develop and optimise their transport infrastructures without introducing the diesel car bans that the government opposes.

Speaking ahead of a "diesel summit" of national and regional governments and carmakers, called in the wake of emissions scandals that have buffeted Germany's car industry, Dobrindt said the fund would help cities develop transport systems and optimise traffic flows to reduce poisonous emissions.

He refused to follow Britain and France in announcing concrete cut-off dates for removing combustion-powered vehicles from the roads, saying it was to soon to bury the combustion engine and it still was not clear if carbon-neutral synthetic fuels would not be as good as battery technology.

"We still have technological decisions ahead of us," he said, adding that though electric cars were the future, it was not yet clear when they would be ready for the mass market.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)