Earlier this week, we reported on German Chancellor Merkel planning to get directly involved in the negotiations with the auto industry over electric vehicle incentives though a meeting held yesterday. Apparently the meeting went fairly well since local media are already reporting that the two parties struck a deal albeit not as generous as previously expected.
The expectation was a €5,000 discount at the purchase, but we now learn it has been cut to €4,000 and capped to electric vehicles with a starting price of less than €60,000. The Tesla Model S starts at €82,700 (including VAT) in Germany.
The new plan was introduced during a press conference with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU), Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) and Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) today. Frankfurter Allgemeine has the bullet-points of the new EV initiative:
- For pure electric cars , there is a grant of 4,000 euros .
- For hybrids, it is 3000 euros.
- It starts mid-May.
- Luxury models are left out. Rewards are only for cars with a list price of a maximum of 60,000 euros (base model).
- The promotion lasts for a maximum total of 400,000 cars .
- The bonus will be awarded to first served basis, Schaeuble said. So suppose that the principle: “first come, first served” . If the quota is queried, it ends the premium.
- The federal government contributes a total of 600 million euros. The cost should ever share federal and automakers half . Overall, the funding is therefore EUR 1.2 billion.
- The promotion ends in 2020.
- 15,000 new charging points will be built. To this end, the federal government will spend from 2017 to 2020 approximately 300 million euro. The sum is divided into approximately 200 million euros for the quick charging infrastructure and 100 million for the normal charging infrastructure
- Tax benefits: an electric car as company car
Featured image: Smart electric cars charging in Berlin, Germany.
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Including hybrids in this was a very poor choice. There’s no shortage of hybrids available and sold. The hybrids will blow through the 400K limit easily – hardly any EVs will get the benefits.
This is what a bill lobbied by the fossil guys look like. 7 mile plugin: 3k incentive, 200 mile EV: 4k incentive.
haha – Tesla, the one car nailing the german auto industry is not allowed.
Of course, they made sure, Tesla won’t benefit. Out German car makers have plenty of Plugin hybrids with ludecrously low electric range in their fleets now, hence the relatively high incentive for hybrids. They will eat up the budget long before Model 3 or any other reasonable EV hits German roads. The dinosours safed an other day.
Or so they think.
To be fair, it is mostly the German taxpayer funding this, and many German jobs are on the line. Should the taxpayer (including most, who cannot afford a 60k car) fund discounts for the wealthy? As big of a Tesla supporter as I am, I think this is the right move for the German taxpayer and auto industry. The more people switch to EVs, the more big auto will concentrate on developing them. Although I’m disappointed that the PHEV subsidy is so high, at least it will help move some people away from pure ICE and help clean up city air.
The German car makers already got an incredible amounts of incentives to build electric cars. And all they came up with were shiny concepts and overpriced, impractical Cars and PHEVs to brush up their CO2 scores. They try to avoid EVs for as Long as possible at any cost. In my oppinion hey don’t deserve a cent of incentives for Even one of their lousy PHEVs.
This is actually good news for Tesla. There is no incentive for any German auto maker to come up with a competitor to Model 3. Folks at the hi end who want to buy a BEV will get Model S or X with max range as usual. German auto makers are not making a serious effort in this range.
The best part of this bill? 15,000 new chargers including hi quick charging with free electricity may be. Tesla will figure out how to make adapters. I would have preferred that they would have allocated all the funds to quick charging. 4,000 Euros? Meh! Tesla will cut the costs of its battery pack by that much by the time the Model 3 is shipped to Europe.
The limit is actually at 60,000€ *without* taxes. The base Model S is 69,495€ without taxes. Maybe Tesla could come up with something that decreases the base price by 9,496€:
– battery not included, monthly payments required to rent a battery
– nav not included in base price, can be added as an option for e.g. 1,000€ (only the BASE price matters for the 60k limit)
– other options not included
“Frantfuter Allgemine”? Never seen so many spelling errors in only two words. 😉
Correction: The newspaper is called “Frankfurter Allgemeine”