Electric cars to get a boost in Europe as part of recovery plan, VAT exemption considered

There’s currently a wide effort to involve electric car incentives in recovery plans around the world and in Europe, it might actually work.

In the US, Democrats have been trying to include electric vehicles and renewable energy as part of the economic recovery packages, but they haven’t had much success.

There are similar efforts in Europe that appear more likely to go through.

The European Union is considering to help automakers with a stimulus package that would boost electric vehicle sales – leaving diesel and gasoline vehicles behind.

Bloomberg reported today:

🇪🇺 *ELECTRIC CARS SET TO GET BOOST IN EUROPE’S GREEN RECOVERY PLAN – BBG
*#EU CONSIDERS VAT EXEMPTION FOR ZERO-EMISSION CARS pic.twitter.com/brizQrep68

— Christophe Barraud🛢🐳 (@C_Barraud) May 19, 2020

The initiative would take several forms, including a potential EU-wide VAT exemption on electric cars.

The plan mirrors earlier comments made by Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister of Economy and Finance when talking about helping automakers struggling due to the pandemic:

Nous sommes prêts à soutenir la demande automobile mais ce sera un soutien pour des véhicules verts qui émettent le moins de CO2, en particulier les véhicules électriques. #LaMatinale @CNEWS pic.twitter.com/CNRWfsgz2l

— Bruno Le Maire (@BrunoLeMaire) May 15, 2020

Le Maire said (translated from French):

“We are ready to support the demand for vehicles but it will be support for clean vehicles that emits less CO2, especially electric vehicles.”

France already has incentives for electric vehicle sales and the government official didn’t elaborate on what new incentives could be put in place.

The European Union has also put goals in place to reduce emissions in new vehicle sales.

Automakers have to produce and sell more electric cars as part of their lineup in order to comply with the government standards or they are subject to fines.

Some automakers have admitted not being ready to deliver enough electric vehicles to comply with the EU’s new requirements.

Fiat-Chrysler made a deal with Tesla to pool their sales in Europe in order for the former to comply.

Electrek’s Take

I hope they can put something together and the rest of the world follows the example.

In the US, it almost went the other way with the stimulus package almost bailing out the oil industry:

There's really no reason to use this crisis to save an industry that is dying for reasons unrelated to the pandemic. On the other hand, we can use this opportunity to rapidly deploy more renewable energy and transition the fossil fuel industry workers.

— Fred Lambert (@FredericLambert) March 24, 2020

It makes sense to use these difficult times as an opportunity to boost sustainable industries, like electric vehicles and renewable energy, which can also be powerful job creators.