"FDP clientele policy": Transport Minister Wissing is planning new premiums for electric cars

Created: 05/10/2022 08:39

According to a report, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to increase subsidies and discounts for electric cars to up to 10,800 euros.

(Archive image) © Michael Kappeler/dpa

According to a report, Transport Minister Volker Wissing wants to increase subsidies and discounts for electric cars to up to 10,800 euros.

Environmental groups, however, are up in arms.

According to a media report, Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is planning higher discounts and subsidies for electric cars.

The Handelsblatt reported on Monday that several research institutes had already examined a corresponding draft.

Sharp criticism came from environmental organizations as well as from the ranks of the coalition partner SPD.

Volker Wissing: Purchase bonus and subsidies for electric cars

According to the newspaper, the transport minister plans to extend the purchase premium for purely battery-electric vehicles or fuel cell cars until 2027.

According to the coalition agreement, all purchase subsidies should actually expire in 2025.

It is also agreed in the coalition agreement that the subsidy should decrease continuously until then.

According to the report, anyone who buys an electric car for a maximum of 40,000 euros will receive a subsidy of 10,800 euros instead of the previous 6,000 euros.

In addition, there is the subsidy from the manufacturers of 3000 euros, which they should also continue to grant until 2027.

For more expensive vehicles up to 60,000 euros, the ministry is planning a premium of 8,400 euros instead of 5,000 euros so far, according to the report.

From the second half of 2023, according to the plans, buyers would have to scrap a combustion engine car that is at least eleven years old in order to receive full funding.

According to the Handelsblatt, the value of the scrapping premium could be around 1,500 euros.

Both premiums are to decrease from 2025 and, according to the report, cost "up to 73 billion euros".

In contrast to Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), Wissing wants to continue to promote the purchase of plug-in hybrids until 2024 and not end it this year.

He wants to halve the subsidy to 2250 or 1875 euros depending on the purchase price.

Discounts and subsidies for e-cars: criticism from environmental groups

The Federal Ministry of Economics emphasized on Monday that the immediate climate protection program with individual measures from all departments as well as the expert evaluation of the climate protection effects were currently still being coordinated between the ministries.

"Therefore, there are no final proposals yet." It is clear: "We have some catching up to do in all areas in order to achieve our climate protection goals."

Clear criticism of the plans came from environmental organizations such as the German Environmental Aid (DUH), the BUND and Greenpeace.

DUH Federal Managing Director, Jürgen Resch, described the plans as "absurd".

The project would only save around four million tons of CO2 per year.

A speed limit of 100 km/h on the Autobahn, on the other hand, could save 9.2 million tons of CO2.

The BUND chairman Olaf Bandt criticized the plans to the editorial network Germany as "FDP clientele politics".

Instead of promoting the purchase of cars, it would be better "to invest in new mobility with fewer cars," explained Bandt.

Greenpeace traffic expert Tobias Austrup also described the plans as a "wickedly expensive gift to the auto industry".

For climate protection, on the other hand, they would bring “almost nothing”.

The vice chairman of the SPD faction in the Bundestag, Detlef Müller, criticized Wissing's proposals to the news magazine Spiegel as "half-baked".

Instead, Müller called for more investment in rail.

Wissing's proposals were "neither covered by the coalition agreement, nor were there talks about deviating from the agreements made so far".