Transport accounts for about a fifth of all greenhouse-gas pollution in Germany and costs the German nation about 50 billion euros (USD55.5 billion) a year in oil imports.
“It would be impossible to halve road emissions by 2030 without legislation that directly or indirectly ushers in a phase-out of diesel and gasoline vehicle production, ” said Oliver Krischer, vice chairman of the opposition Green Party, said in an interview Wednesday. “What we need is a boost of e-cars to reach the climate goal that Germany and other countries committed to at the world climate conference in Paris last year.”
While Volkswagen Group, BMW Group and Daimler already are stepping up investment in electric and plug-in hybrid car technology, such vehicles make up a tiny fraction of cars on German roads.
About 130,000 plug-ins and 25,000 all-electric cars were registered in Germany as of January 2016 when compared with 30 million petrol powered cars and 14.5 million diesels vehicles, according to Germany’s motor vehicle authority, the KBA.
German Chancellor Merkel’s government has pledged subsidies this year to speed EV and plug-in sales, a move that was accelerated by Volkswagen’s emission-manipulation scandal. Currently, buyers of EVs and plug-in vehicles can claim cash incentives. The program may spark sales of about 500,000 electric cars by 2020, according to the German Environment Ministry.
Purely electric vehicles as a portion of all cars on German roads may reach about 8% in 2025 from 0.6% this year, according to a forecast of the Center of Automotive Management institute.
The government has so far stuck with a plan to put a million EVs on the road by 2020 and 6 million by 2030. This is the right direction but at what cost to the rest of Europe.
