Dear reader, As a young engineer in the seventies, Friedrich "Fritz" Indra designed the first series-produced gasoline engine with turbocharging for Alpina. His further career path led him via Audi to the pre-development of Opel. From 1997 until his retirement in 2005, he was responsible for drive pre-development at General Motors. Holger Appel and Johannes Winterhagen from our Technology and Motor editorial team had a highly regarded and highly discussed conversation with him about the future of electric cars. For you as an F+ customer, the interview is just as worth reading as the readers' opinions. For some, the interlocutor is too old, which should not be accepted as an argument, for others true words are pronounced. And there's a lot in between.

Carsten Knop

Editor.

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What's it all about? Friedrich Indra does not leave a good hair on the electric car, it does not protect the climate. Instead, the 82-year-old engine expert relies on further developed combustion engines and synthetic fuels. Why? "The CO₂ backpack from battery production is huge. We have elegantly outsourced it to China. This is where the majority of the batteries come from, they are produced with dirty coal-fired electricity. If these batteries are then installed in a European car, the government says it is a clean drive. In addition, the electric car naturally needs electricity, which increases power consumption. There is clean electricity, but it is already completely consumed." Not surprisingly, another piece from this week has to do with clean energy. Volker Looman explains how you can earn money with a solar system on the roof – and how not.

After his chancellorship, Gerhard Schroeder continued to have a say in the Federal Republic's policy towards Russia. The key to this was his networks in politics and business as well as the SPD myth of détente. Reinhard Binger and Markus Wehner from our political editorial team have written a book about this: "The Moscow Connection. Das Schröder-Netzwerk und Deutschlands Weg in die Dependen". We have a long preprint for you, here is an excerpt: "What is striking in Schroeder's network is the high number of interrelationships that are financially underpinned. Within this network, one could describe such diverse chains. Heino Wiese arranges the entry of oligarch Alexej Mordashov into TUI, led by Social Democratic manager Michael Frenzel, which in turn sponsors the arena of building contractor Günter Papenburg; Papenburg holds shares in the steel company Salzgitter AG, which Schroeder once bought as prime minister with state funds from Frenzel's TUI predecessor Preussag and which later supplies tubes for the company Nord Stream 2, supervised by Schröder, as well as other pipeline projects of the Kremlin, whose honorary consul in Hanover is Heino Wiese. And all these people meet temporarily in the common G-6 lodge at Hannover 96. If one looks at the structural features of the Schroeder network, the absence of women is striking. Schroeder's entourage bears men's alliance traits. It consists mainly of successful and wealthy gentlemen, who usually have a pronounced self-confidence. Feelings of shame are less pronounced. Pusher columns and contacts with criminal rockers are just as little an obstacle to entry as pronounced contacts to Iran, China or Russia. People drink together. You help each other."

Let's get to the normal people and their everyday lives. Some well-behaved customers develop a special attention these days when visiting his supermarket. At every visit, the first glance is the question: What have they already drastically made more expensive? Cheese in a piece? The particularly popular wine? The fresh fruit already cut into small pieces ready to eat? Christian Siedenbiedel, editor in the economy, has taken a closer look at the inflation figures that are relevant in this context and knows: One of the few things that has recently become cheaper was butter. Here, the price fell by 14.2 percent in February compared to January. Edible oils, which had become significantly more expensive at the beginning of the Ukraine war because many came from there, also became cheaper again – by 7.2 percent compared to January. Almost all other products on the shelf, however, are becoming more expensive. As a result, people are increasingly turning to retailers' own brands.

Thank you for your kind interest in our digital offerings. If you have an F+ subscription and a question about it, please send me an email to c.knop@faz.de.

Your Carsten Knop
Editor
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung