Germany far from 2030 electric vehicle target as registered fleet hits 1.65 million

Following a 27 percent reduction in sales of new battery electric cars (BEV) in Germany in 2024, a total of 1.65 million BEVs were registered in the country by 1 January 2025, showed existing fleet data by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). The lacklustre year means Germany is behind meeting its target of having 15 million electric cars on the country’s roads by 2030.

The shift to electric cars is Germany’s central lever to reduce transport emissions, but the roll out of low-emission vehicles has not exactly been smooth. Following the budget crisis in 2023, the government abruptly ended its electric car subsidy programme and EV sales collapsed. Only around one in seven new cars sold in Germany was fully electric, pushing the 2030 target increasingly out of reach.

Fully electric cars now make up 3.3 percent of the country’s entire fleet of more than 49 million passenger cars. About 44 million of these are still fuelled by diesel or petrol. Researchers from think tank Agora Verkehrswende and Zukunft KlimaSozial have proposed reintroducing subsidies that are staggered by income to support especially lower-income households.

Other European countries have smaller markets overall, but sometimes a much higher share of electric cars. In Norway, they outnumbered petrol cars for the first time last year, but diesel models remained the most numerous.

The European Union has set carmakers CO2 emissions limits for their fleets and selling more electric vehicles is one way for them to meet targets – and avoid fines. Lagging EV sales mean that carmakers like Volkswagen are facing billions of euros in fines. However, the European Commission is set to propose weakening the rules to provide “more breathing space for industry.”