The grant for Alternative drive cars rose sharply in Germany in the past year. According to figures from the Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (Bafa), the amount paid out grew from a good 98 million euros in 2019 to 652 million euros this year, as reported by the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post” in its Tuesday edition. This is an increase of six and a half times.
“In 2020 we made a significant leap forward in terms of electromobility in Germany,” commented Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU), according to the newspaper. He named the increased funding as the reason for the development. The decisive factor was the introduction of the innovation bonus in July, with which the federal government doubled its funding for the purchase of an electric car.
According to the newspaper report, buyers have applied for funding for a total of 229,951 cars since the beginning of the year. In 2019 there were still 73,081. The number of battery vehicles applied for rose from a good 51,000 in 2019 to more than 126,000 in 2020, and the number of hybrids from just under 22,000 to 103,000.
At a car summit organized by the federal government with industry and employee representatives in November, it was decided to extend the innovation bonus for buyers of electric cars until the end of 2025. According to the “Rheinischer Post”, Bafa President Torsten Safarik is now “confident that we will receive high numbers of applications in the coming year with the extension of the innovation bonus”.