Porsche's home state may face speed limits after election win for Greens.

Marc123

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http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110328/ANE/303289761/1498

BERLIN -- German voters who propelled the Green Party to a record result in Baden-Wuerttemberg may have ushered in a speed limit on highways in the state that's home to luxury carmakers Porsche AG and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz unit.

The Greens helped defeat Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition in a regional election yesterday on a platform that includes a speed limit of 120kph (74.6 mph) to help reduce vehicle emissions. That speed limit is less than half the top speed of a recent Porsche model.

About 65 percent of the state's highways currently have no speed limit.

"Traffic in Baden-Wuerttemberg contributes about 30 percent to CO2 emissions," Winfried Kretschmann, who is poised to become the Greens' first state premier, said on the party's Web site. "It's clear that the transportation sector has to make a contribution of its own to reduce this gas that's harmful to the environment."

An Autobahn speed limit is just one measure that may affect the car industry in the state where the first gasoline-powered automobile was patented in 1886 by Carl Benz.

The Greens also favor "more efficient engines," the development of cars that use less gasoline, the introduction of city tolls and tax breaks for environmentally friendly vehicles.

Stuttgart-based Porsche, which was this month due to begin selling a 63,400 euro ($89,300) Boxster S Black Edition with a top speed of 276 kph, declined to comment on the outcome of Sunday's elections, spokesman Dirk Erat said by phone Monday.

Daimler supports high speeds

"The fact that our cars are built for high speeds is an important argument in other countries for buying them," Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said in a March 2 Stern magazine interview. "We're well advised to maintain the Autobahn sections that don't have a speed limit."

The Greens want to build on the state's track record of innovation to focus on environmental products and services, and "for the car industry that means we will try to push technology that cuts petrol consumption," Kretschmann told reporters in Stuttgart on March 23. "The car industry would definitely have no reason to fear us," he said in an interview the same day.

The Greens took a record 24.2 percent in Baden-Wuerttemberg while their Social Democratic Party allies won 23.1 percent. The parties' combined 47.3 percent is enough to beat Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Free Democratic Party coalition partner, which together won 44.3 percent.

The CDU and FDP reject blanket speed limits. The Greens will begin talks later today on forming a coalition with the Social Democrats, Kretschmann said in Berlin. The SPD favors a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour.
 
They already tried putting speed limits a couple of years ago, it did not pass. They are not wussies like us here.
 
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