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Charging station: purchase bonus works
Photo: Teresa Kröger / imago images / Kirchner Media
Purchase bonuses have significantly boosted electric car sales in Germany.
From the point of view of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), more is needed for a traffic turnaround: stricter limit values, higher CO2 prices and more charging stations.
As the institute announced on Wednesday, the gap between combustion engines and battery-electric cars is closing.
At the beginning of 2019, two percent of all newly registered cars were still running on electricity, by autumn 2021 it was already more than a fifth.
The researchers calculated seasonal and cyclical effects and were able to prove, according to their own account, that this was due to the purchase premiums.
Buyers can get up to 9000 euros for the purchase of an electric car.
The premiums are financed by the federal government and the manufacturers.
»Our analysis shows that purchase premiums for electric cars have an effect.
In order to achieve the goals of faster market penetration, however, a large number of other measures are necessary," said DIW traffic expert Aleksandar Zaklan.
Environmentally harmful subsidies would have to be dismantled, the pollutant limits for fleets lowered and fuel charged with a higher CO2 price in the long term.
Because in order to achieve the government target of 15 million electric cars by 2030, 130,000 new cars would have to be registered every month.
In 2021 it was only 30,000 per month.
From the point of view of the study authors, it is also important to make the purchase of cars at least partially superfluous with powerful and reliable buses and trains.
mik/dpa-AFX
