The Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWK) is increasing the budget for the state environmental bonus that can be claimed when purchasing an electric car. “In order to ensure predictability and security for consumption and the economy, the BMWK will increase the funds for 2023 by at least 400 million euros,” the ministry said on Friday on request. “Tagesspiegel Background” had previously reported.
This year, 2.1 billion euros are available for the environmental bonus. According to the BMWK, 1.72 billion euros had already been paid out by July 3rd. The additional money comes from the current budget of the ministry under Robert Habeck (53, Greens). Funds for the bonus were expected to be reallocated from programs that had lower spending in 2023.
The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) has recently recorded an increase in demand for the environmental bonus. “Since March 2023, the number of applications has increased from around 29,000 to over 47,000 vehicles applied for in June,” BAFA said on request. However, the values for the entire period are below the corresponding values for the years 2022 and 2021.
More applications for a purchase bonus, but below the level of previous years
In total, applications were made for around 147,000 vehicles in the first half of 2023, around 48 percent of them by private individuals. In the same period of the previous year, this proportion was still 43 percent. The other applications were for commercial leases, for which funding will expire at the end of August.
Since the beginning of the year, buyers of fully electric cars have only been able to receive 4,500 euros from the state instead of 6,000 euros if their car is on the sales list for less than 40,000 euros net. For more expensive vehicles up to a net list price of 65,000 euros, there are still 3,000 euros instead of the previous 5,000 euros. In the coming year, the subsidy premiums will continue to decrease.
In autumn 2022, the federal government decided that from September 1st, only private individuals would be entitled to apply for the environmental bonus. In addition to a reduction in funding for electric cars also live out the subsidies for plug-in hybrid vehicles at the end of 2022.