Who a new Electric car wants to buy is now clear: The significantly higher state premium will soon be extended to the end of 2025 – so far it is limited to the end of 2021. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Thursday that the purchase premium, financed from taxpayers’ money, should be extended in July, but no later than August. This provided relief in the auto trade.
“It was high time to clear up the uncertainty both in the automotive trade and among consumers,” said the Vice President of the Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry, Thomas Peckruhn. Because if you order an e-vehicle today, you have to expect delivery times until 2022.
The extension of the so-called innovation bonus had already been decided at a “car summit” at the end of November. The implementation took time. In order to get more e-cars on the road, a year ago the existing purchase premium (environmental bonus) was increased via an “innovation premium” – the federal government had doubled its funding for the purchase of an electric vehicle. Since then, new registrations have increased significantly. Manufacturers also participate in the environmental bonus. E-cars play a key role in the federal government’s strategy to Climate goals to be reached in traffic.
Up to 9,000 euros in funding for an e-car
The doubling of the federal share in the purchase bonus has brought a significant boost to electromobility, said Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier (63, CDU) on Thursday. According to the ministry, a grant of up to 9,000 euros can be applied for for electric vehicles that cost less than 40,000 euros net list price. For hybrid cars it is 6750 euros. For e-cars with a net list price of 40,000 euros, there is funding of up to 7500 euros for purely electric vehicles and up to 5625 euros for hybrid cars. The applications are processed by the Federal Office for Economics and Export Control (Bafa).
In the first half of 2021, more premiums were used than in the whole of last year, a total of 1.25 billion euros, according to Altmaier. “There will be record funding for electric cars this year. That is why we in the coalition decided to continue funding until the end of 2025 so that the market ramp-up for electromobility continues to gain momentum.”
In the federal government’s draft budget for 2022, 2.1 billion euros is budgeted for the innovation bonus. According to Bafa, 273,000 vehicles were requested in the first half of the year, which is already more than in the entire previous year. The President of the Association of the Automotive Industry, Hildegard Müller (54), called the bonus an important boost for the expansion of electromobility and thus for achieving the climate targets.
The announcement of the bonus comes at a time of profound change in the automotive industry. More and more manufacturers are announcing that they want to say goodbye to the internal combustion engine in central markets in the medium term. So said OpelCEO Michael Lohscheller said on Thursday that Opel wants to be fully electric in Europe by 2028. German car brands dominate e-vehicles in their home market. In the first half of the year, Germany a good 312,000 pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids were newly registered. That was every fourth to fifth car.