Increase of Germany's e-car buyer's premium delayed

The raised buyer's premium on electric cars, set to come into force in January 2020, has been delayed, Zeit Online reports. "At this stage, BAFA does not have any information on when and how the directive on the promotion of electrically powered vehicles will be amended," writes the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA) on its homepage. Zeit Online reports that there appears to be uncertainty in the economy ministry (BMWi), under which BAFA falls, about which electric vehicles will be eligible for support. BAFA has ascribed the delay to the European Commission being in the process of assessing the prolonged and raised premium, but the Commission itself denies having received any regulation for assessment.  

The buyer's premium for e-cars is intended to boost the sales of a whole range of electric vehicles. It is set to increase by 50 percent to 6,000 euros for cars costing less than 40,000 euros and by 25 percent for more expensive cars costing up to 65,000 euros. The government plans to have up to ten million e-cars on the road by 2030 and estimates that the money available for the buyer's premium will be enough for another 700,000 e-cars. At the beginning of 2019, Germany had about 83,000 purely electric and 341,000 hybrid electric cars on its roads. During the year, around 63,000 new purely electric cars and 239.000 cars with hybrid drive have been registered.