The EQA electric compact SUV. Source: Daimler
Germany is debating a range of ideas to boost sales of electric vehicles (EV) and support the transition of one of the country’s most important industries.
The automotive industry is facing ongoing difficulties, partly caused by lower-than-expected sales of EVs. Among the suggestions put forward to reverse the sales slump was Daimler manager Martin Daum’s call for a surcharge of 10 cents per litre of petrol to incentivise a shift to electrically powered cars.
“If we go ahead and say that 10 cents per litre of petrol will be added every 1 January, from now until eternity, this will remain within the regular oscillations of the fuel price within the first three or four years” and lead to the desired effects in a relatively short time, Daum said in an interview with public broadcaster SWR.
“At some point, this will bite you so much that you’ll never think of buying a combustion engine car again and directly go for an EV instead,” the manager argued.
Daum said raising the price of fuel would be a very simple way of reducing carbon emissions – but claimed no policymaker dared to suggest it “because a majority of citizens probably will not accept it”.
He added that a new buyer’s premium is not currently a solution to the problem. “This only makes sense in the very early stages, when it’s about testing new technologic ideas and customers run a risk and don’t know if it will work,” he said. EVs clearly had left this stage, Daum added.
Meanwhile, an analysis by research organisation International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found that introducing a “voluntary scrappage scheme” (Abwrackprämie) for old combustion engine cars could help spur EV sales and slash emissions.
Paying car owners a subsidy when switching engines would be a cost-effective option that also maximises societal health benefits through reduced air pollution, the ICCT said. The analysis focused on a scrappage scheme for diesel cars that are between 15 and 25 years old and for which owners should receive 80 percent of the car’s residual value.
The scheme would make the clean-up of Germany’s vast combustion engine car fleet much cheaper than using e-fuels: “E-fuel production costs are price prohibitive and importing them from other regions outside of Germany would, even in 2030, likely be up to three times more expensive than a voluntary scrappage scheme,” said ICCT Europe director Peter Mock.
“Relying on e-fuels also moves us away from our goal of reducing air pollution and safeguarding public health,” he added.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) recently proposed a scrappage premium for old combustion engine cars when swapping it for an EV, news agency dpa reported in September. The proposal was swiftly rejected by one of the SPD’s coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), arguing this would entail too much bureaucracy and favour one technology over the other.
Germany’s auto industry is struggling with high investment costs and low demand for electric cars. The shift to electric mobility is shaking up longstanding industry networks and production practices centred on combustion engines.
Challenges are exacerbated by German carmakers’ late decision to significantly ramp up their investments in EVs and battery technology, where they face fierce international competition and lag behind in key fields.
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This is the sort of article that will have pollies like Barnaby Beetrooter and that duffer Dutton going apoplectic with outrage. 🤣
Good!
Think outside your rose colored glasses.
Food costs up.
House hold appliances u.
Ev car prices up.
Hospital costs up.
School costs up.
Electric prices up .
EV Prices down actually
Australia already has annual petrol and diesel tax increases but it doesn't seem to be having that much of an impact on EV sales. Part of the problem is that there is a steady stream of disinformation about how much it costs to charge an EV. These always ignore home charging and only charge at the most expensive chargers available. Admittedly home charging is a bit tedious on a 10A outlet!
Also, Australian's fuel taxes are very low when compared with other OECD countries. Fuel excise is about 50 cents per litre. In the UK, it's about 1 Australian dollar per litre.
You want food prices up electricity prices up so people can decided to eat or heat the house
I want supermarket trucks to be electric.
A bit tedious?
I'm sure you don't have to stand there and 'hold the hose' like a stupid ICE driver has to.
It's more the hours of charging required. Theoretically you can charge at 10A but in practice the maximum rate I have seen has been a bit less than that.
That's correct. For example a Tesla will charge at 8A on a 10A powerpoint, or 12A on a 15A powerpoint. In most cases it does not cost a lot to have a 32A circuit installed. That will charge most EVs very comfortably in eight hours or less.
We charged our M3 on a 10amp charger for about 2 years, no problems. We now have a 32amp outlet - so we have gone from 14km hour to 52 km an hour and we are on Origin power up rate of 8c kwh, Magic. It works out at 1c a kilometer (120watts per km). 1,000km for $10. Best of all, it's Australian made energy, creating Australian jobs! Life is Good.
So 32 amp to charge your car. No heating or cooling or cooking or showers at the same time
“a Tesla will charge at 8A on a 10A powerpoint, or 12A on a 15A powerpoint”
That’s only if you have the old tails. I bought the new 10/10A and 15/15A tails for my UMC in 2022 and confirm the Tesla now charges at the full rate on either.
True, but weirdly the more recent UMCs only charge at 8 and 12A, even though they have 10 and 15A tails.
32 amp Fuse to charge you car, then please do not use your air-conditioning or stove to cook or have your electric shower, most house have a 60 amp main fuse.
22 hrs to charge from 20% to 80%
5 minutes to fuel my car for 650 kilometres range
Install a better charger, you don't have to use the granny charger the car came with. I fitted a 7kW (32A) charger, it speeds things up nicely, but I also have a 15A granny charger, not that it ever gets used. Pretty much all EVs on the market are capable of at least 6kW AC charging.
Seems you should look at your main fuse and decide what you do not wat to do while you charge your car, cook, shower or cool or heat your house
Wow, you just keep repeating the same BS over and over, hoping it will actually become true, don't you. We have an 80A connection, as many older homes do, and never worry about what's running. The house is all electric and we don't come close to maxing out the connection.
Not disinformation but people looking out side the ev lies that they charge at home from free solar but drive to work
So ian has changed his name to Tom!
Gee, that's not at all regressive! The problem with Daum's logic is that low income earners have to put that increasingly expensive fuel in their old cars, too. How about a one-off registration tax levied on new cars that includes the social cost of carbon that car will emit over its lifetime?
You're right of course - the social cost is too high for any politician to go near it. Problems with a one-off registration tax are that it is a substantial hit for any new car buyer who can't change to EV, and it takes a very long time to have substantial effect on emissions, in fact it may encourage people to keep driving old cars.
Why would they not be able to buy an EV?
The point is that the one-off registration tax would make EVs the cheaper options. See Norway.
Combine the fuel tax with a cash for clunkers program and subsidised leasing or purchase for those on lower incomes. It's not hard, the real issue will be stopping the inevitable dodgy bastards trying to rort the system, like many do already.
You mean like the 10s of millions for ev subscribers for the well off which hospital or school would you like shut down in your area.
Give it a rest, Tom, you are talking out your arse. Go look up fossil fuel subsidies and then come back and tell us how much EVs get. I'll make it easy for you, from the Australia Institute: "Australia’s subsidies to fossil fuel producers and major users from all governments totalled $14.5 billion in 2023–24, increase of 31% on the $11.1 billion recorded in 2022–23."
We should start by removing the taxpayer support fossil fuel companies get.
Every single ICE driver is being supported by the taxpayer every-single-time-they-fuel-up. It's unfair to EV drivers.
This is an important point and one lost on the pro fossil fuel people. Last financial year Australia subsidised the fossil fuel industry $14.5 billion.
Fossil fuel subsidies in Australia 2024 - The Australia Institute
Correct! By the numbers we have been completely stupid. Australians tend to think in the short term. We are the world's best democracy, but that doesn't excuse that we still have a huge / over abundance of completely useless greed-driven Boomers and ignorant older people.
LOL. More coolaid swallowing. History 101 - those boomers (I'm not one) led almost all the progressive environmental/social changes we now have - it was gen X onwards (the greed is good decade) to narcissistic millennials that sold us down the river, leaving alphas with the mess we now have. A study of progressive boomer strategies (what worked and what didn't) should be mandatory for people wanting to take up the baton today...
Totally agree As a very heavy taxpayer - far more than an average country person - and a non-car-owner cyclist, I'm sick of paying for the fossil-fuel pollution that is filling my lungs every time I venture on to the goddamed road! Barnaby has one fuck of a lot to answer for, the useless DINGBAT. My advice to Barnaby, don't let your party ever attain government ever again.
Oh wait, I forgot that that is his aim anyway.
So, you're a cyclist on a big salary. You must be important.
Hope you don't get run over by a robotaxi. That would be some irony.
Robotaxi will be literally a thousand times safer than human drivers, so I can't picture that. But in the event - if it's a lithium irony I wouldn't care. We'll all be gone some day soon but our choices now will chart the path of the species ... in fact the world.
Christ that's kinda poignant for a Saturday night!
Your faith in younger people saving the planet is just as misguided as at any other time in human history. Waiting for old people, you know, the ones to blame, to die is what vultures do.
So, you're an entitled ICE driver who *jokes* about cyclists getting run over. Yes we know your type. I bet you drive an enormous ute?
Interesting how people make massive judgements on such little evidence. You, for example, seem to be far more offended than the recipient. Typical.
Couple the tax hikes with cashback for ICE wrecking, and a low cost EV social rental scheme like what France had until it was too successful, and things will pretty quickly improve, I think.
Yes.
The proposal is all stick and no carrot.
Don’t petrol prices go up every year anyway? 😂
So let's put food costs, school costs hospital costs electricity costs, not much thinking again from the ev cult