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Episode details

World Service,28 Apr 2026,26 mins

Driving against net zero

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Available for over a year

Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe鈥檚 populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the homes of German car culture and a populist stronghold, Zwickau, to see how motoring is rising up the German agenda. Is Zwickau a foretaste of something affecting all of Germany 鈥 a car-loving, car-manufacturing powerhouse in the past, now wondering anxiously what the future holds against the emergence of Chinese electric cars. And less than a hundred miles from Zwickau, just across the border in the Czech Republic, a new coalition government has recently taken power, including ministers from a populist party called Motorists for Themselves 鈥 muscular defenders of the old petrol car. Producer: Jim Frank Studio engineer: Neil Churchill Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Editor: Penny Murphy (Photo: VW workers in Zwickau demonstrate against cuts in production Credit: Jens Schlueter/AFP)

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