Plug-in electric vehicles in Germany

In June 2020, and as a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government approved a recovery plan which included €8 billion to promote electric vehicle adoption and deployment of charging infrastructure. The purchase bonus for all-electric cars was raised temporarily from €6,000 to €9,000 for cars costing less than €40,000. There are lower bonuses for the purchase of plug-in hybrids, used cars and for leasing. The additional bonus will be available until the end of 2025.

The stock of plug-in electric cars in Germany is the largest in Europe, and represented 2.5% of all passenger cars on German roads on January 1, 2022. As of December 2021, cumulative sales totaled 1.38 million plug-in passenger cars since 2010, of which, 1.184 million were still in circulation at the beginning of 2022. As of December 2019, Germany had a stock of 21,890 light-duty electric commercial vehicles, the second largest in Europe after France. As of March 2020, the country had 27,730 public charging stations.

The plug-in electric car segment market share was 1.58% in 2017 and 1.9% in 2018. The segment market share rose to 3.10% in 2019, and despite the global strong decline in car sales brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the uptake rate achieved a record 13.6% in 2020. As of 1 January 2021, the stock of German plug-in electric cars on the road totaled 588,944 units, representing 1.2% of all registered passenger cars, up from 0.5% the previous year.

In 2019, Germany surpassed Norway as Europe's top selling country market in terms of annual sales, and with a record volume of 394,632 plug-in passenger cars registered in 2020, up 263% from 2019, Germany listed for a second year running as the best selling European plug-in market. Both years, the German market led both the fully electric and plug-in hybrid segments. The only country that outsold Germany in 2020 was China. Sales in 2021 surged to 681,410 rechargeable units, capturing a record market share of 26.0%.

Government incentives

In May 2010, under its National Platform for Electric Mobility, Chancellor Angela Merkel set the goal to bring one million electric vehicles on German roads by 2020. However, the government also announced that it would not provide subsidies to the sales of plug-in electric cars but instead it would only fund research in the area of electric mobility. As of April 2016, electric vehicles and plug-ins in Germany are exempt from the annual circulation tax for a period of five years from the date of their first registration. In 2016, the annual circulation tax exemption was extended from five to ten years, backdated to 1 January 2016.

The private use of a company car is treated as taxable income in Germany and measured at a flat monthly rate of 1% of the vehicle's gross list price. So plug-in electric cars have been at a disadvantage since their price tag can be as much as double that of a car using a conventional internal combustion engine due to the high cost of the battery. In June 2013 German legislators approved a law that ends the tax disadvantage for corporate plug-in electric cars. The law, backdated to 1 January 2013, allows private users to offset the list price with €500 per unit of battery size, expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh). The maximum offset was set at €10,000 corresponding to a 20 kWh battery. the amount one can offset will sink annually by €50 per kilowatt hour. As part of the package of financial incentives approved in 2016, private owners of plug-in electric vehicles that charge their cars in their employer premises are exempted from declaring this perk as a cash benefit in their income tax return. Employers who provide this perk are allowed to discount from their income tax a 25% of the lump sum value of the cash benefit. These two fiscal benefits apply only from 1 January 2017 until the end of 2020.

In August 2014, the federal government announced its plan to introduce non-monetary incentives through new legislation to be effective by early 2015. The proposed user benefits include measures to privilege battery-powered cars, fuel cell vehicles and some plug-in hybrids, just like Norway does, by granting local governments the authority to allow these vehicles into bus lanes, and to offer free parking and reserved parking spaces in locations with charging points. Not all plug-in hybrids will qualify for the benefits, only those with CO₂ emissions of no more than 50 g/km or an all-electric range of over 30 km (19 mi) are eligible. The range criteria will rise to 40 km (25 mi) starting in 2018. The Bundestag passed the Electric Mobility Act in March 2015 authorizing local government to grant these non-monetary incentives, which are not mandatory. The law also provides issuing special license plates for electric vehicles to allow proper identification to avoid abuses of these privileges. As of March 2015, just 12 municipalities are considering to allow electric vehicles in the bus lanes in their jurisdiction. Most cities, including Hamburg and Munich, are not willing to allow electric cars in their bus lanes.

The special license plate authorized by the 2015 Electric Mobility Act adds the letter "E" at the end of the license number. Owners of all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids with a minimum all-electric range of 30 km (19 mi) can apply for the special license. The minimum range for eligible plug-in hybrids rose to 40 km (25 mi) from 1 January 2018.

According to the fourth progress report of the German National Platform for Electric Mobility, only about 24,000 plug-in electric cars were on German roads by the end of November 2014, well behind the target of 100,000 unit goal set for 2014. As a result, Chancellor Angela Merkel recognized in December 2014 that the government has to provide more incentives to meet the goal of having one million electric cars on the country's roads by 2020. Among others, the federal government is considering to offer a tax break for zero-emission company cars, more subsidies to expand charging infrastructure, particularly to deploy more public fast chargers, and more public funding for research and development of the next generation of rechargeable batteries.

Purchase incentives

2016-2019

At the beginning of 2016, German politicians from the three parties in Mrs. Merkel's ruling coalition and auto executives began talks to introduce a subsidy for green car buyers worth up to €5,000 (US$5,500) to boost sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars. As of February 2016, the German government proposal is for the auto industry to cover 40% of the cost of the purchase subsidy. Private buyers would get the full €5,000 subsidy, while corporate buyers would receive €3,000 for each electric car, and the program is expected to run until 2020, the deadline set to achieve the goal of 1 million electric cars on German roads. Incentives will fall by €500 each year. In March 2016, Nissan Europe announced its support to the green car incentive and its commitment to double the government's E-premium incentive when buying a Nissan electric car, with a reduction of the purchase price of the same amount of the subsidy. Nissan Center Europe CEO said "we remain convinced that the goal of one million electric cars by 2020 is still achievable." According to Nissan if from now on electric car sales double every year until 2020, it is still possible to achieve the government goal.

An incentive scheme to promote plug-in electric vehicle adoption was approved in April 2016 with a budget of €1 billion (US$1.13 billion). A total of €600 million (US$678 million) is reserved for the purchase subsidies, which are expected to run until all the money is disbursed, estimated to last until 2019 at the latest. Another €300 million (US$339 million) are budgeted to finance the deployment of charging stations in cities and on autobahn highway stops. And another €100 million (US$113 million) would go toward purchasing electric cars for federal government fleets. The program is aimed to promote the sale of 400,000 electric vehicles. The cost of the purchase incentive is shared equally between the government and automakers. Electric car buyers get a €4,000 (US$4,520) discount while buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles get a discount of €3,000 (US$3,390). Premium cars, such as the Tesla Model S and BMW i8, are not eligible to the incentive because there is a cap of €60,000 (US$67,800) for the purchase price. Only electric vehicles purchased after 18 May 2016 are eligible for the bonus and the owner must keep the new electric car at least nine months. The same rule applies for leasing.

As of September 2016, BMW, Citroën, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo had signed up to participate in the scheme. In May 2016, Nissan announced the company decided to raise the bonus with an additional €1,000 (US$1,130) to €5,000 (US$5,650) for customers of its all-electric Leaf car and e-NV200 utility van. The online application system to claim the bonus went into effect on 2 July 2016. As of September 2016, a total of 26 plug-in electric cars and vans were eligible for the purchase bonus. According to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), a total of 4,451 applications have been made for the government subsidy for the purchase of a plug-in electric model as of 30 September 2016, consisting of 2,650 all-electrics and 1,801 plug-in hybrids. As of 30 September 2016, the federal states with the most claims are Bayern (1,130), Baden-Württemberg (873), and Nordrhein-Westfalen (726).

As of 1 September 2016, the following 26 plug-in electric cars and vans were eligible for the purchase bonus: Audi A3 e-tron, BMW 225xe, BMW 330e, BMW i3, Citroën Berlingo Electric, Citroën C-Zero, Ford Focus Electric, Kia Soul EV, Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive (B 250e), Mercedes-Benz C350 e, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV, Nissan e-NV200 5- and 7-seater Combi, Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn, Peugeot Partner Electric, Renault Kangoo Z.E., Renault Zoe, Smart Fortwo electric drive, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Volkswagen e-Golf, Volkswagen e-Up!, Volkswagen Golf GTE, Volkswagen Passat GTE, and Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid. As of 30 September 2016, the models with the most applications are the Renault Zoe (876), BMW i3 (766), Audi A3 e-tron (462), BMW 225xe (440), and Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV (353).

In order to meet the climate targets for the transport sector, in 2016 the government set the goal to have from 7 to 10 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2030, and 1 million charging points available in Germany also by 2030.

2020-2025

As a result of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government approved in June 2020 an economic recovery plan with a budget of €130 billion, which included €8 billion to promote electric vehicle adoption and deployment of charging infrastructure.

As part of the stimulus plan, the purchase bonus for plug-in electric cars was raised by temporarily doubling the federal contribution of the environmental bonus until the end of 2021. The so-called "innovation bonus" increased the subsidy for new cars costing less than €40,000 from €6,000 to €9,000 for fully electric cars, and for plug-in hybrids from €4,500 to €6,750. This became the highest economic incentive granted in any European country, but there is a holding period, the vehicle must be registered in Germany for at least six months.

There are also lower bonuses available for leasing; new cars costing between €40,000 and €65,000; and also for used cars, provided no environmental bonus was granted in a previous purchase. In addition, other tax incentives for electric vehicles were introduced. In November 2020 the government decided to keep the innovation bonus until the end of 2025, but for plug-in hybrid cars to be eligible they must have a minimum electric range of 60 km (37 mi) from 2022 and at least 80 km (50 mi) from 2025. The initial one million goal was achieved with a six months delay in July 2021, including buses and commercial vehicles.

Controversies

Loophole to EU regulations

According to Der Spiegel, by the early fourth quarter of 2015 the Kia Soul EV ranked as the top selling plug-in electric car in Germany during 2015 with 2,459 units sold, with almost 1,000 registered in October, nevertheless, there were actually only a few of them on German roads. At the time, about 1,400 Soul EVs had been shipped to Norway and sold as used cars, where availability of new Soul EVs was limited. According to the magazine, Kia Motors is registering the electric cars in Germany and then shipping them to Norway, which does not belong to the European Union, as a strategy to reduce the average CO₂ fleet emissions of the entire Hyundai-Kia Group. This strategy allows the carmaker to comply with European Union regulations that mandate 130 grams of CO₂ emission per km in 2015, and so they avoid to pay a fine of €70 million per year for each gram above the established average limit. According to German authorities this loophole is legal. A total of 2,044 Kia Soul EVs were exported to Norway as used cars during 2015.

National Platform for Electric Mobility

The German National Platform for Electric Mobility ("Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität") is an advisory council of the German Federal Government for electric vehicle introduction. It consists of the top representatives of industry (10 Members), politics (6), science (3), associations (3) and unions (1). It was officially established on 3 May 2010 during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel. Its task is to push on the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility ("Nationaler Entwicklungsplan Elektromobilität"). The goal for 2020 of the NPE is to develop Germany to the leading supplier and lead market for electric mobility and to gain employment in the country.