Due to the high subsidies for the purchase of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, more and more people in the district are deciding to buy such a vehicle.
This creates enthusiasm among retailers, but also stress and worries about the future.
Because the delivery times are long and the future of the workshops due to the low-maintenance e-vehicles is uncertain.
County
- Buying a new car has been a fairly straightforward affair for a long time.
You stopped by the car dealership, had a coffee, signed a contract if everything was right, and a few weeks later the model of your choice was in the yard, if you couldn't even take it with you right away.
Those times are over: In times of pandemics, there is no longer any coffee.
And just buying a car like that and taking it with you is now more difficult than expected.
At least if the currently extremely generous funding (see box) encourages you to buy an electric car.
And that is what more and more residents of the district are doing.
With some manufacturers it is already impossible that a car ordered today will be delivered this year.
Electric car boom: "Every second new car is now electric" - how do you get the subsidy from the state?
"In comparison, things are still looking good here," says Johann Hintermeyer, owner of the Peugeot dealership in Schongau.
The manufacturer has planned the capacities correctly and can still deliver.
"If you order now, you can take delivery of your vehicle in autumn at the latest," promises Hintermeyer.
And that is also necessary if you want to collect the extra funding, which until now has only been paid by the federal government until the end of the year.
If you want to collect the full 9,000 euros grant, you have to have your car registered by December 31st at the latest.
This is how the new environmental bonus works
Anyone who buys a new electric car or a plug-in hybrid can look forward to generous funding. For purely electric cars without a combustion engine there is a grant of 6,000 euros from the federal government. Since the manufacturers are obliged to contribute another 3,000 euros to the funding, in the end, 9,000 euros can be saved when buying a new electric car. However, the net list price of the car must not exceed 40,000 euros in order to receive the full subsidy. If it is higher, the federal government will only pay 5000 euros.
For plug-in hybrids there is a subsidy of 4500 euros from the federal government, which the manufacturers increase to 6000 euros if the net list price is below 40,000 euros. If it is higher, the state only gives 3750 euros. It is important that only vehicles that are on the Bafa list are promoted. If you want to be on the safe side, look on the Internet at www.bafa.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Energie/emob_liste_foerderfaehige_fahrzeuge.html.
Anyone who is now thinking of getting a new electric car should also note that the subsidy will be paid retrospectively. This means that you can only apply for it once the car has been delivered and registered. In other words: Regardless of whether you lease, finance or pay in cash, you usually have to pre-finance the federal funding out of your own pocket and then receive it back from the federal government.
“Of course, people want to take that away with them,” says Hintermeyer, who cannot help but be amazed. "If someone had told me a few years ago that every second car we are delivering this year has an electric drive, I would have just laughed," he says. But meanwhile it is exactly the same. He benefits from the fact that Peugeot, as a manufacturer, now has a wide range of electric and plug-in hybrids on offer. Plug-in hybrids are cars that have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor and can cover short distances of between 50 and 100 kilometers purely electrically. They can be charged at the socket. For them there is also a subsidy that is not quite as generous as for pure electric cars, but you can also plan longer vacation trips without charging breaks.They are as much in demand as pure electric cars, says Hintermeyer.
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Even before the official start of sales, there were around 150 pre-orders for the Skoda Enyaq.
Edwin Brummer from Auto & Service PIA GmbH believes that this is extraordinary.
© Photo: Gronau
Electric car: boom in the market - still a minority
So is it all sunshine in the dealership because the cars are being sold almost faster than they can be delivered?
"Of course we are happy that things are going well," says Hintermeyer.
There are still problems: "We fight for every car to make sure that it is delivered on time."
In addition, there is an immense need for training and investment in the car dealership due to the electric car boom these days. “You can only sell electric vehicles at Peugeot if you can prove that you have the appropriate qualifications,” says Hintermeyer. Hardly a day goes by without one of his twelve employees completing an online training course. The more e-cars are sold, the more uncertain the future of the workshop business is, admits Hintermeyer. There is a lot to do on a normal combustion engine. Oil changes, adjustments, countless parts interlock. Electric cars, however, have a very simple structure. The electric motors are low-maintenance and almost indestructible, and the batteries usually come with long-term guarantees. A lot has to be documented for customer service, but there is comparatively little to screw.How this will affect the capacity utilization of the workshops in the future remains to be seen, according to the Peugeot dealer from Schongau.
At the moment, however, he is more than happy to be able to supply many customers with new electric vehicles.
Usually, however, these are people with their own house who have a wallbox (also generously subsidized) installed so that they can charge directly in the garage.
E-cars and plug-in hybrids: Still a small minority
Even if an extremely large number of e-cars and plug-in hybrids are currently being sold, these vehicles are still a very small minority when it comes to all the cars that are on the road in the district.
According to the District Office, a total of 139 293 vehicles of all types are currently registered in the Weilheim-Schongau district.
A total of 18 135 cars were registered in the district in 2020 - but these were by no means all new cars.
In 2021 there were so far 4607.
If you now look specifically at the topic of electromobility, it is noticeable that a total of 973 electric vehicles and 902 hybrid vehicles were registered in the district at the end of April 2021. 281 electric and 272 hybrid vehicles were newly registered in 2020. The fact that there has been much more movement this year can be seen from the fact that 149 electric and 139 hybrid vehicles were newly registered in the district in the first four months of the current year alone. However, their overall share is still very low.
Even at Auto & Service PIA GmbH, which sells vehicles from manufacturers VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat and, more recently, Cupra in Weilheim, Penzberg and Landsberg, the proportion of electric cars that are sold has increased dramatically in recent months .
In an interview with the local newspaper, sales manager Edwin Brummer assumes a share of “20 to 25 percent of the portfolio”.
If ordered now, individual models would only have a production window in 2022. Others, such as the VW ID4, could still be delivered this year.
"It pays off that we now have a wide range of very attractive models."
Electric car boom: high funding as a decisive factor?
“Of course, the currently extremely high funding has an important part in this,” says Brummer. However, he also recalled that the subsidy for electric cars will in principle be paid by the end of 2025, even if it is not clear whether it will be as high as this year. "With a view to the upcoming federal elections, however, I cannot imagine that the rates will be reduced," said Brummer.
Nevertheless, many want to be on the safe side and grab the full funding amount, which in some cases already leads to completely new experiences for the sellers. Perhaps the most popular electric model that PIA GmbH sells is the new Skoda Enyaq. A large, electrically powered SUV with a range of up to 570 kilometers, which, thanks to the subsidy, is hardly more expensive than a comparable combustion engine. “The model was launched on April 24th. But we had already registered around 150 pre-orders, ”says Brummer. So 150 people have bought a car that they have never seen in reality, that they have never sat in and that they have never test-driven. “This is also new for us,” he says.
But it is not just the private customer business with electric cars that is clearly picking up.
Corporate customers are also increasingly relying on e-mobility.
"Anyone who works at Roche in Penzberg, has a company car and needs a new car can now only order an electric car," says Brummer.
Even plug-in hybrids, which are otherwise popular with company car drivers due to the reduced tax rate, are not provided at Roche.
Nevertheless, Brummer warns that it is currently not foreseeable whether the internal combustion engine will really disappear completely.
“If the Greens are elected, it is very likely.
But nobody else can say how business will develop in the coming years, ”he is sure.
Buying a new electric car: Usually long waiting times - MINI expert provides insights
Thomas Ernst, a salesperson at MINI Wiedman & Winterholler in Weilheim, also had to change.
And that multiple times.
“It used to take a maximum of two months between the order and delivery of a combustion mini.
Now we are already happy if we can deliver an electric mini that is ordered today to the customer by the end of the year, ”he says.
The interest is great, which is by no means only due to the funding.
"Many are amazed because the combustion minis were already very fast on the road - but the electric mini is perhaps our sportiest model due to its balanced weight distribution and the fact that the engine immediately provides propulsion," says Ernst.
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Perhaps the sportiest way to drive a Mini is to use the electric version, says Thomas Ernst, salesman at MINI Wiedman & Winterholler in Weilheim.
© Photo: Gronau
In the meantime, roughly every third car that he hands over to customers is "electrified", i.e. either a purely electric car or a plug-in hybrid.
Of course, the subsidy from the state plays a role here.
But also the driving pleasure.
In the beginning it was the “early adopters” who always had to be the first to own the new technology, who ordered an electric car from him, but that has now completely changed, says Ernst.
"My customers come from all walks of life, the typical e-car driver no longer exists." It is no longer just homeowners who buy such a vehicle and charge it at home.
"Anyone who has a public charging station within walking distance can easily buy an electric car," says Ernst.
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