Electric cars should play an important role in achieving climate goals in traffic – but they are often even more expensive to buy than combustion engines. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (53, FDP) is also relying on a “company car effect” to get more used electric cars with cheaper purchase prices. “The used car market for electric vehicles is currently fed primarily from the company car market,” said Wissing of the German Press Agency.
These fleets are renewed more quickly, and this creates a used car market. “We’re not talking about big limousines, as many people think. The classic company car is a standard vehicle.”
The average price for new e-cars is currently more than 40,000 euros, according to Wissing. There is still not enough supply of used cars. “But we have to answer the question of how, for example, nurses in the country get to the hospital at flexible times,” said Wissing. “I can’t tell people, buy an electric car for 40,000 euros. Or: take the bus if there are only thinned out timetables.”
Company car regulations have always been an opportunity to quickly bring modern vehicles onto the market, said the minister. The fact that the used car market for e-vehicles is currently being fed primarily from the company car market “should also be kept in mind by those who on the one hand want to promote climate protection through electromobility and on the other hand demand that we should abolish company cars”. Wissing is aiming at demands tax concessions for company cars to delete.
The used car market with pure electric cars is in Germany however, little progress has been made lately. In the first half of the year, they accounted for only 1.25 percent of transfers of ownership – that was even a minimal decrease compared to the same period last year. The main reason is that there are simply not enough older Stromers in the vehicle fleet.
It will be some time before that changes. Thomas Peckruhn (61), Vice President of the Central Association of the German Motor Trade (ZDK), expects a larger supply of used electric vehicles from 2024 or 2025, when the leasing returns of the past few years come onto the market. So far, purely electric cars have been sold to private individuals with an above-average frequency. But that also slows their arrival on the used market, because private customers keep their vehicles longer on average.
Stromer more popular with private customers than with companies
In the first half of this year, the pure electric vehicles were more popular with private customers, with a 20.3 percent share of new registrations, than with companies, where they accounted for 13.6 percent, according to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Even if you exclude car dealerships, rental companies and car manufacturers, the proportion of new company cars with 17.7 percent that are powered by electricity is still well behind private cars.
According to a recent survey by the market observer DAT among company car drivers, purely electric vehicles make up only 6 percent of company fleets. For at least 19 percent of company car drivers, however, they are the most likely choice for their next vehicle – partly because of the tax advantages. But even that would be less than with private cars.
With regard to the change to new, climate-friendly drives, Transport Minister Wissing emphasized: “We are faced with the question of how individual transport can be made affordable for everyone in the future.” Therefore he advocates “technology openness” Also because we see that e-vehicles are currently not affordable for many.”
Specifically, Wissing is also campaigning for climate-neutral artificial fuels based on electricity (e-fuels). They are still a long way from mass deployment.
With his fight for e-fuels and his cuddling course with the top of the German train the FDP politician has recently become a national attraction in his office as Minister of Transport. A portrait of Volker Wissing, who sees himself as a bulwark against green-left utopians, read here
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