Several companies are calling on the federal government to create incentives for the conversion of vehicle fleets to fully electric vehicles as part of the planned immediate climate protection program. “Two out of three new cars will be in Germany registered as a company car”, according to a statement published on Friday joint writing
to the Federal Ministers of Economics, Transport and Finance. These new registrations should be fully electric as soon as possible because they will be available to the public as used cars after a few years. Therefore, the existing incentives for plug-in hybrids and combustion engines should be abolished as part of company car taxation.
The letter was signed by a total of 13 German companies, including Ikea, Aldi Süd, Lichtblick, Free Now, Vaude and Compleo. The companies justify their initiative with the ambitious goals of the federal government to reduce emissions in Germany by 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. Around a fifth of Germany’s emissions can be traced back to the transport sector and have hardly fallen since 1990. “We want to contribute to achieving the climate goals,” write the companies.
“In order to achieve the climate goals set by the federal government, emissions in traffic must be significantly reduced quickly,” said Jan Lorch from the outdoor outfitter Vaude. One should now do everything to electromobility to accelerate in companies.
In addition to the change in company car taxation, the companies are calling for the extra depreciation for climate-friendly assets already laid down in the coalition agreement to be extended to e-cars. In addition, the fast charging infrastructure should be massively expanded and binding targets set. Furthermore, the companies are demanding that the federal government should advocate higher targets for fleet limits at European level. The federal government is expected to publish its immediate climate protection program on July 13.
The problem with the super write-offs: They will not be introduced this year anyway, as Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (43) explained in April. The reason: In view of the supply chain problems, the companies lack intermediate products. In such a situation, an investment incentive in the form of a “super write-off” does not make sense, emphasize economists.
Background: In the coalition agreement, the parties agreed to create an “investment premium for climate protection and digital assets”. This should enable taxpayers to deduct a proportion of the acquisition and production costs of the assets purchased or manufactured in the respective year, which serve these purposes in a special way, from the taxable profit – i.e. write them off. It is still unclear whether the increased depreciation option will be introduced in 2023.