Driving Against Net Zero

Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s 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 – 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 – muscular defenders of the old petrol car. Producer: Jim Frank Studio engineer: Neil Churchill Production coordinator: Katie Morrison Editor: Penny Murphy

You can listen to Driving Against Net Zero online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Driving Against Net Zero is an episode from Crossing Continents by BBC.

This episode is 28:19 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2026.

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