German Government Partner with Automakers to Boost EV Sales

Germany is considered a world leader when it comes to the automotive industry. Home to some of the world’s largest car manufacturers, including Audi, Volkswagen and BMW, Germany boasts the largest automotive market within the EU. Whilst Audi, Volkswagen and BMW have long since announced their commitment to developing the EV market, the German government have been much slower to follow suit.

In the past, the incentives offered by the German government to encourage the uptake of EV has fallen far behind those offered by their EU counterparts. As a result, the EV market was slow to grow in Germany with a mere 55,000 EV’s currently on the road.

However, in early 2016, the German government announced their commitment to the EV market by pledging €600 million to boost EV sales over the next three years. The government have set an ambitious goal of getting one million EV’s on the road by 2020. Unlike other government incentive schemes across Europe, the German government have partnered with international automakers, who will be matching the governments incentive of €600 million, bringing the total budget up to €1.2 billion. The generous incentive scheme will see buyers receive as much as €4,000 in rebate when purchasing an EV. This is a huge increase on Germanys previous incentives schemes, which offered EV owners a saving of a mere €400 over a five-year period.

As well as providing incentives to increase the number of EV’s on the road, the German government have also planned to invest €300 million in improving the EV infrastructure by 2020.

Whilst the target of 1 million EV’s on the road by 2020 is very ambitious, the German government are pulling out all of the stops to ensure they reach their goal. They have a committed government, support from the automotive industry and are working towards building a user-friendly infrastructure. These three elements were the key to the success of the EV market in Japan.

Only time will tell whether the government’s programme will be success, but with the support of the automotive industry and a growing infrastructure, the future looks bright for the German EV market.

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