There should be many more electric cars on German roads – and continue to do so with a financial boost from the state. But the new traffic light coalition of spd, FDP and Greens wants to give the funding soon a stronger climate protection orientation. The consumer centres are calling for significantly more targeted purchase incentives. “I would encourage the federal government to make a clear cut here,” said the head of the Federal Association (vzbv), Klaus Müller, the German press Agency. Even more is to be done with the electricity charging network.
Müller said: “You don’t have to subsidize every luxury car from the state, even if it’s an electric car.” Purchase premiums should only be available at list prices below 40,000 euros – so far, an upper limit of 65,000 euros applies to the basic model. “We urgently need a functioning used car market for electric cars,” explained the consumer advocate. “And that should be above all the small and medium-sized cars.” Many who could not or did not want to buy new cars are dependent on this.
However, the condition of the batteries is an important point with regard to possible follow-up costs, according to a vzbv position paper. Used car buyers would therefore have to receive reliable, standardized information on the “health status” of the battery. In order to strengthen trust in used e-cars, the costs for testing batteries could also be subsidized.
Müller emphasized: “One should only promote the electric cars that really have a demonstrable environmental effect.” This mainly affects hybrid models with combined drives, in which less electric and more with classic fossil fuels are driven. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has already announced a realignment from 2023. In the future, only e-cars that have “demonstrably a positive climate protection effect” will be funded, according to the coalition agreement.
This is to be determined by the electric driving portion and the electric minimum range of the models – specifically mentioned is a larger e-distance of 80 kilometers. However, the current grants were recently extended again until the end of 2022. In the new year, there will also be an “innovation bonus” of up to 9000 euros for purely electric cars and up to 6750 euros for hybrids that can be charged via plug-in.
The goal of the traffic light coalition is at least 15 million fully electric cars by 2030. At the beginning of 2021, there were 309,000 pure electric cars, plus 280,000 plug-in hybrids, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. However, new registrations increased significantly in 2021, also thanks to increased purchase premiums.
The consumer centres are calling for speed in the further changeover. Until relatively recently, many manufacturers were of the opinion that the mobility of the future would be increasingly difficult, faster and more energy-guzzling. “That was wrong,” Müller said. Now everyone would have turned the tide. Progress must also be made in the expansion of charging networks. In some cases, there is a confusion of payment systems and prices, which does not contribute to simplification and reliability. And e-car buyers would need security not to be stranded on vacation, on a business trip or when visiting another federal state.
The automotive industry is also putting pressure on this. “The charging infrastructure must run ahead of the e-car fleet,” Hildegard Müller, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), recently told dpa: “This is the only way to gain consumer confidence and encourage people to invest in an electric car.” However, Germany is extremely lagging behind in terms of expansion. “In order to really be able to reach the amount of electric cars that the federal government is planning, about 2,000 new public charging points would have to be installed every week – in fact, there are only 300.” The pace must therefore increase sevenfold.
Consumer advocate Müller then generally sees further processes of getting used to: “For many, it is also difficult to imagine that it is no longer the five minutes of filling up with gasoline or diesel – but perhaps 20 or 30 minutes of double coffee break and more when charging the car.” (By Sascha Meyer, dpa)
Also read:
Funding amount almost quintupled in 2021: BAFA spends more than three billion euros on e-cars
Long delivery times for plug-ins: Missed e-promotion annoys customers
Consumer advocates: Promoting private charging stations for e-cars again
Realignment from 2023: Habeck extends state funding for e-cars until the end of 2022
From the data center:
Monthly applications for the environmental bonus bis November 2021
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