German economy minister Peter Altmaier has joined a growing chorus of calls for extending subsidies to boost the rollout of electric cars.
“I want hundreds of thousands of employees in the car industry to still have good jobs in 10 or 15 years,” Altmaier, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance, according to a dpa report carried by Handelsblatt.
With reference to Germany’s current buyers’ or “innovation” premium, which grants up to 9,000 euros for new e-cars, he added: “For this, the innovation premium is an important contribution.”
The current subsidy for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids is set to expire at the end of 2021. Earlier this month, other leading conservatives had also called for an extension of the subsidy, which has fuelled a substantial increase in the registration of new electric vehicles.
Bavarian state premier Markus Söder said the support scheme should be extended by three or four years “if we really want to make progress on the transformation process.”
The take-up of electric vehicles has been slow in Germany in comparison to many other markets. But thanks to the new government incentives, registrations have picked up sharply in recent months.
In October, the share of pure electric cars in new car registrations reached 8.4 percent as a record number of car buyers opted for alternative propulsion systems.
Clean Energy Wire. Reproduced with permission.