play a part in the future of mobility or is this the end of the road. despite all the bad press there are signs that the combustion engine won't sputter out for good at least not anytime soon as our reporter found out there are all sorts of new fuel like synthetic ones that can significantly reduce the engines carbon footprint. invented 140 years ago it's powered countless cost around the world and provided the driving force for entire industries all reliable old friend the in charge will come bust an engine and all of a sudden it's history in china how does the fish really rolled out a plan soon and gasoline cars france the united kingdom and india well they're all doing it he's out of gasoline and diesel fuel vehicles here in germany a cool has ruled in favor of banning diesel vehicles and pop some of the car industry isn't really happy about it and you want to go along to the good truth that sounds good for the money show some people are claiming hey we've got the perfect solution for making the combustion engine carbon neutral and i would love that because then i could do this. without having any regrets and for the sound it doesn't get better than a perhaps a lens of luck. and these are the silver bullets to save the combustion engine supposedly straw that is processed into bio methane and the latest innovation fuel that can be created from thin air. 5 tons of straw a process here every hour every day for this is a lot of soul. destroying use is what's left over from the harvest. the company verb buys it up and turns it into bio methane. that it's sold to more tourists at feelings station. but in. germany there are currently just 100000 vehicles that can run on bio my face on natural gas not many considering there are more than 47000000 cars on the road and that's despite the fact that fueling with wild gas uses 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and costs for her last night gasoline costs costs that run on that have less miles there are only a few gas stations that have it and your lot will cost you. at the moment by a methane isn't very popular. producers say they need more political support as it was if i knew what it is not. things need to change at the political levels biofuels such as rapes and all made locally have many environmental benefits but there needs to be a push politically and a significant carbon reduction commitment has to be in place and the pressure is on to develop new technologies and new biofuels cost of. already that's going is going to go. for a car that runs on bio fuel it's a pretty smooth ride. so there's a myth about these cars that has been busted but it's a persistent one so that they don't have to pump so much in cars that used to be a problem because the engines got so much more involved that's really not longer an issue and pedal to the metal is still a lot of. the problem is there just isn't enough biomass waves and that's the major limiting factor in ways to fuel proposals according to lower even as far off as 2050 biofuels would only replace 11 percent of the kerosene that's. needed in the europe's every nation industry. i mean tradition in ways to reduce our limited materials and in our everyday lives we all try to reduce waste so we're not sitting at a stage where we have. to produce. and in addition to that there's a lot of other industries that. move away from fossil based products so all of this points out to the fact that there will always be a limited amount of. energy and for transport. ok it was worth a try but from fin they could rescue the combustion engine couldn't they. that's what they're working on applecarts royal institute of technology fuels from air capture carbon dioxide are produced inside these containers in the hydrogen and c o 2 are turned into kansas hydro carbons further processing plant them into liquid synthetic fuel. there are norms in place already in some areas and our fuel bill in other words i can fill up my car with it and don't need to worry about safety issues when i'm driving around. so anderson fuel is almost carbon neutral as long as the entire production process is powered exclusively by excess electricity from renewable sources but it's still early days in the development of tactic you know you can sniff it it's not dangerous that's not ok let's go live to it smells quite strong. it was a store it was not like it was smell off a gas station puncture the world this is how it is but all these electricity based since. mine are. all that green electricity has to be generated in the 1st place and that can only happen when there's enough. wind water. to produce as much if you will for all of germany's transport needs it would take around half of all the electricity currently generated in the entire country the new fuel isn't cheap either about 4 years 50 elite or one of the country's water powers its delivery fleet with a synthetically produced fuel that's a little cheaper than that. the company believes the age of the internal combustion engine has not yet cost. i don't think the combustion engine is there we need customized concept. will be around for another few years but there are also electric cars hopefully also new technologies. solutions will have to be customized i'd say that's the key issue this isn't. so is it the end of the road for the tried and trust the technology or not. well it doesn't look too good for the. new technologies. biofuels and. at least. it's clear that we'll need all of these technologies. to fuel to keep all have the. motor cycles i hope. the. greenies won't like that well some car makers and car owners are still hoping the diesel will make a comeback despite its tarnished reputation diesel vehicles don't spew out quite as much carbon dioxide as regular cars that run on petrol but they do emit a heap of health harming nitrogen oxides and particulate matter so tiny a competitor deep into the body the pollution they cause has led to bans in some german cities for example in stuttgart for all but the cleanest diesels our reporter you are a mega set out to find out more about the pros and cons of diesel. this is the bam of the bet all shown off takes 2 demonstrations. he's always driven to work in stuttgart but since early last year he's no longer allowed to do so. borderline drunk in the banner says no to the driving ban we think it's unfair that diesel car drivers are punished because of a botched traffic policy polluting. you don't so you're an activist and i just. i wouldn't call myself an activist i'm just politically active i would consider it civic participation. fighting for justice precisely. his diesel car sounds a bit like tractor. commander from 2007 it's a mission standard is 04 it was state of the art when i bought it. what is hero for me. categorized from one to 6 according to their exhaust emissions. or is banned in stuttgart yes so we're breaking the law i mean i wouldn't call what we're doing a criminal act it's a traffic offense. what's the fine 108 euros. the diesel ban applies to all of stuttgart but no one pulls us over. my next stop in the city is this air quality measuring station we had pollution on this stretch of road used to be the worst in germany the ban was introduced on the strength of the data collected here and the ban has made a difference exhaust pollution has decreased over the past year now the only diesels allowed to drive here are latest generation ones that produce very low levels of harmful exhaust emissions. miss avies is based in stuttgart and it still makes diesel cars it was implicated in the diesel emissions cheating scandal the 1st company to be unmasked was volkswagen later it turned out that my safety's had also been cheating claiming its diesel engines were cleaner less polluting than they really were it has cost my sadie's billions and dented its reputation. top. austin is in charge of engine development at the company. one wonders why it's still working on diesel powered models. trust you. of course they can because emission levels have been checked and confirmed by independent external bodies they tested engines like this their own location and they confirmed. this is the engine he's referring to. it's a diesel electric hybrid designed to power an s.u.v. . the only manufacturer to make. the great advantage is that fuel consumption is low on longer trips and with its large capacity high voltage battery it's entirely emissions free tailpipe. emissions for purely electric no emissions coming out the tail. but only in electric mode. while cities evidently thinks that diesel has a future industry analysts do not. know how much time is left on. 10 or 15 years. battery powered cars will be so far advanced that there will be hardly any deficit in terms of usability or performance compared to today's combustion engines. well until diesel and gasoline a gone for good if ever the current catch phrase when it comes to cars is hybrid means a combo of combustion engine and electric motor we visited one of germany's biggest automotive supply is to find out how it's been gearing up for a hybrid electric future. this electorate motor is destined for a mercedes in germany said f. group has been making car parts for board than a century. your golden doest heads the electro mobility department as the combustion engine falls out of favor electric cars and hybrid drives are the future despite the company's decades of experience technology for electric cars is still uncharted territory for them. an electric motor is much more efficient than a combustion engine it just hasn't been through the long history of optimization that the combustion engine has always and i think that's the achievement of german engineering in particular and so this is where the journey really begin that's going. on. electric motors are easy to produce because they have fewer components than combustion engines. the technology is less difficult to develop which means there's much more competition. i'm elected in an electric motor isn't just something that's done in the west there are now supplies all over the world that provide all manner of electric motors for all kinds of applications. that competition means workers have to be flexible there are $50000.00 in the sector in germany alone which products are updated every 2 to 4 years and workflows change at the same time sales of german cars are slumping on global markets the total number of cars produced in germany fell in 20182900. 50 our employees and the works council have worked hard over the past year to ensure that we actively embrace the changes but in the knowledge that we have security. that the company will hold onto its workers . he said as agreed to cut no jobs for the next 5 years no one knows for sure whether the promise will be honored though. the rapid technology race also puts enormous pressure on the engineers they are designing motors and other parts in anticipation of their use years from now. when a manufacturer puts an order out to tender in this field we have significantly more competitors than we have for our established products in some cases well over 10. this automatic transmission is symbolic of the changing industry it's still being used in cars with combustion engines but it has its own built in electric motor the automotive industry supplier received a double digit 1000000000 euro order for a plug in hybrid engine it's based on technology that's becoming an increasingly significant part of its business. thrilled to have won several big orders for a new 4th generation 8 speed automatic transmission or some of the clients are well known car makers like b.m.w. chrysler. b.m.v. chrysler. the industry is going through radical changes technology for pure combustion engines is not so much in demand anymore they have can compensate for this with their new electric and hybrid business but many other traditional suppliers are feeling the strain. now for the elephant in the room do we actually need cars in cities if there is a good system of public transportation and bike lanes and sidewalks to walk on of course many cities don't fulfill those requirements unfortunately according to my colleague christine of us women are more likely the men to shake off the shackles of car ownership at least hear about it. if. and by that i take my scooter and use public transportation to get around berlin is the quickest and nicest way for me to travel to work a torch of relativity in the. middle of what is the urban travel of gender to do men and women do it differently. that you. believe and that lingo local well i don't drive myself and i have a driver you can see during the ride i work read or chat with my friends you know the tram is really quite luxurious. which is. what is going on i don't get why some people would rather drive battle the traffic and arrive at work in a fall in love. with it seems to be a gender thing in the way we get around in big cities and here women are more apt to take public transportation or walk well almost half of men drive. but i know ours are a status symbol for them less so for women doesn't matter what. that's consequently as that means women cost less pollution or we move more ecologically is most likely look at. let's kill those who come here guys times have changed your travel habits need to change to the want to. see that it was what we do and we take public transportation. yes and joy to fresh air. read a book get to work feeling relax. do yourself and the planet a favor woman want everyone and everything will benefit both us. it's. a good idea but i'm not sure everyone is so keen to give up the thrill of being behind the wheel true it may be more of a man's game but what do you expect just look at the volvo logo nevertheless volvo is keeping up with the times and has decided to focus solely on developing models that will have a reduced environmental impact it's been a rocky road for the swedish car maker but it may now be back on track as a subsidiary of a chinese automotive group with a commitment to an electric future. the new volvo s.u.v. quite the gas guzzler you might think but it has both an electric motor and a combustion engine in the city covering short distances its fuel consumption is lower making for guilt free driving even the long distance it's the same as any s.u.v. henrik green is head engineer at volvo he regularly uses the company's test circuit in sweden the full electric variant is expected to come out this year we are fully dedicated we are not hesitating where it should be a pure electric future i see many of our competitors still hesitate on that secondly we are probably among the smallest steel premium car companies and we have a very solid a technology an architecture so for us to actually transition our entire vehicle portfolio is probably not less complicated compared to many of the bigger car companies. the black cliff e.m.i. and battery wing 200 kilograms is destined for a hybrid motor here at the volvo factory and often both sweden. carolyn and carolyn is one of 8000 engineers designing the company's new electric models. in 24 and we are expecting. 20 percent of our total sales to be guarding hybrids and looking a bit farther along in $15155.00 we take a step longer and expect. or able to have 50 percent of our sadist to be fully electric cars volvo plans to roll out a new electric model every year an ambitious plan but is it realistic. in the past 10 years the swedish company has seen steady growth. sales amounted 237-0000 cars in 2010 and climbed 270-0000 in 2019 largely thanks to a chinese investor. well i mean it's definitely a new spirit i remember the 1st time i heard mr address the volvo team after the acquisition and he spoke about releasing the tiger and as i see it it was to create trust in our society build for us to acquire new competence and build the competence we have and really becoming a leading company in 2010 volvo was struggling then it was bought by chinese billionaire li shu food who also bought a 10 percent stake in diner with the help of the bank of china the shoe flu is chairman of the julie group one of china's largest auto makers. the launch of pole star soon followed a new brand jointly owned by volvo in chile. production takes place in china design and development in gothenburg. we of course do common sourcing when it comes to. important elements like batteries and stuff that is of course where the scale effect of that group is important of course we do not have to invent each and every detail on our own we built a poster to in an existing. which saves money volvo pollstar in g.'s components such as this chassis as well as engineers gili employs another 600 people in the volvo development division and often but. the aim is to develop electric motors in batteries and house rather than buying them from supply is. the 2nd generation that we are heavily undergoing in development right now will be developed in the house and we are taking big steps on energy efficiency and weight deficiency also the high voltage battery. volvo plans to be manufacturing mainly electric hybrid vehicles in 20 years time the company is confident that the future is electric. maybe the combustion engine is on its way out after all made today thanks for joining us and do drop us a line on twitter or facebook as you know we're always keen to get your thoughts. in ghana a trip to the market should be deadly but the farmers in style holders have no choice cocoa oil gold of ghana's economy could be flourishing but the people here see no signs of cost crumbling bridges or an overcrowded closer to god somehow they're where's must get to market and daily life remains a struggle. the 15 minutes on d. w. . it's time to take one step further. than face. time here of just such a deal. and fight for the truth. to overcome boundaries and connection to the law it's time for. a new ws coming up ahead. mines. in southern napalm 250 blind people are about to see again gelasius one of them. live from an improvised clinic is being set up in the temple complex the mob and to the next danger. can you see. plays anything to that reporter on the move with him a police officer just talked a really to seeing the light starts temporary 8 on t w. w's crime fighters are back together with africa's most successful in radio drama series continues splitting up all of the sos are available online to get more so you can share and discuss on t w africa's facebook page and other social media platforms such to me now. it is for me infinitely to. be told it is for. you sir. beethoven is for. plato's it is for covering monoplane beethoven 2020 vision of the 50th anniversary here on d w. place. blame. blame blame blame. blame. this is the daily news live from u.s. president donald trump delivers a self-congratulatory state of the union address. the american adventure has only just begun and my fellow americans the best is yet to come. he hailed the economy and his foreign policy a cheap.