VOLKSWAGEN AG 
The Commission said on Monday it had no plans to introduce quotas for electric cars for an automobile sector seeking to recover from the Volkswagen (>> Volkswagen) diesel scandal.
A spokeswoman for the German environment ministry, which is run by the Social Democrats (SPD) - the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition - said without quotas for electric cars the European Union could miss its carbon dioxide emissions targets.
The SPD, Merkel's main rival in September's election, wants a European-wide quota to accelerate the shift towards electric cars, the SPD's general secretary said on Friday.
"There must be ambitious targets, otherwise we won't make any headway," Hubertus Heil told Reuters.
He added that he was not, however, in favour of setting a specific date to take diesel motors out of service.
The SPD, which is lagging far behind Merkel's conservatives in opinion polls, is in favour of tax incentives to accelerate the switch to electric cars.
A plan laid out by SPD leader Martin Schulz said an obligatory minimum number of electric cars for Germany and Europe would give car markers incentives to develop new technologies. He did not suggest specific numbers.
Merkel has repeatedly warned against "demonising" diesel engines.
The Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper cited several members of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) as criticising the SPD's suggestions of a quota.
"Set quotas remind me of a planned economy and that has never been successful," Norbert Barthle, deputy transport minister and CDU member, was quoted as saying.
Britain said last month it would ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040 in an attempt to reduce air pollution. The global auto industry debate could one day herald the end of more than a century of reliance on the combustion engine.
(Reporting by Tom Koerkemeier and Holger Hansen; Writing by Joseph Nasr and Michelle Martin; Editing by Paul Carrel and Alister Doyle)
