Mobility turnaround: Federal government extends e

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Electric car at a charging station: ambitious plans

Photo: Andreas Weihs / imago images

The new federal government is extending the so-called innovation bonus for the purchase of electric cars and plug-in hybrids until the end of next year.

Buyers of purely electrically powered electric vehicles will continue to receive up to 9,000 euros in funding in 2022, as the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection announced on Monday.

Plug-in hybrids are funded with a maximum of 6750 euros.

From 2023, the funding will then be reorganized.

Until the funding has been realigned, the one-year extension of the innovation bonus should ensure »continuity«, said Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Robert Habeck (Greens).

In the future, the federal government will then become "more ambitious" in funding, "in order to give electromobility a further boost and strengthen climate protection," he announced.

According to the ministry, from 2023 onwards only electric vehicles "that have been shown to have a positive climate protection effect" will be subsidized.

According to this, this should "be defined via the electric driving component and a minimum electric range".

Work on the new "funding design" had started with the start of the new federal government.

According to Habeck, the amendment to the funding guidelines for electric vehicles necessary for the extension of the innovation bonus has been agreed in the federal government.

"It will be published in the Federal Gazette at the end of the year and will come into force on January 1, 2022," said the minister.

The innovation bonus has been in effect since July 2020 and is currently limited to applications up to and including December 31, 2021.

In the middle of last year, the existing purchase bonus (environmental bonus) for e-cars and plug-in hybrids was increased through an innovation bonus.

The federal government had doubled its funding for the purchase of such vehicles, limited to the end of 2021. This had led to a sharp rise in new registrations.

mik / AFP