Germany

Germany has unexpectedly objected to the EU’s planned vote to officially ban combustion vehicles by 2035, questioning its support for the law and how it will affect the industry, particularly by not properly explaining how the use of e-fuels will be regulated.

Zero emission powertrain developer H2FLY has announced a joint project alongside Stuttgart Airport to develop and erect a Center for Excellence in Hydrogen Aviation. Together, the aviation teams will implement a purpose-built facility at the airport specifically designed to support hydrogen electric plane testing for passenger flights.

Europe’s first charging corridor for medium and heavy-duty electric trucks has been launched in Germany by BP Pulse.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz announced another big step in becoming an all-electric luxury brand by the end of the decade. The company recently shared that its Untertürkheim plant, where combustion engines have primarily been assembled, will be scaled up to deliver more EV motors for future Mercedes EQ vehicles. It is now targeting 1 million a year beginning in 2024.

German crane maker Sennebogen last week debuted a 50-metric-ton electric telescopic crawler crane – the first battery-powered crane in its weight class.

EV freight technology company Einride has announced its expansion into Germany, the EU’s largest transportation market. The company will bring its electrified and autonomous freight shipping technology to the country, backed by a new Einride regional office and local logistical hubs. It also has a list of German partners already in place.

Relatively new EV automaker ElectricBrands has unveiled a Camper version of its XBUS electric van, which originally debuted last year. While many of the pertinent details of this XBUS Camper variant remain a mystery, ElectricBrands has shared several images and claimed the EV is “at the top of customers’ reservation lists.” Check out the gallery below.

Reports out of Germany state that the country’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has proposed to gradually phase out subsidies for EV purchases through 2025 and completely eliminate any benefits to consumers purchasing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by the end of this year. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) is pushing back, arguing that PHEVs remain vital to EV adoption.

Porsche AG is testing the possibilities of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology in its EVs, but taking it a step further. Rather than just deliver EVs like the Taycan that can supply energy back to the grid rather than just pull from it, Porsche has run a V2G pilot program that utilizes “swarms” of EVs whose high-voltage batteries are pooled to help keep the local electrical grid stabilized.

Battery manufacturing behemoth, CATL, shared news that its upcoming plant in Thuringia, Germany has received 2nd partial approval for cell production. This milestone brings the Chinese company one step closer to opening its first battery manufacturing facility outside of China later this year.

Germany’s economy and climate ministry today announced a more ambitious target of clean energy making up 80% of its power mix by 2030 – a bump up from its previous target of 65%. Currently, 40.9% of Germany’s power mix consists of clean energy.

Clean energy made up 46% of Germany’s net public power generation in 2021. That was down from 50% in 2020, according to Fraunhofer ISE, the largest solar energy research institute in Europe. 

In case you missed it, a gaggle of Electrek‘s staff just spent several weeks in Germany attending the Eurobike and IAA Mobility trade shows to check out the latest in two-, three-, and four-wheeled electric transportation. While we were there, the fast-paced electric bicycle company Super73 was kind enough to loan us a pair of badass e-bikes that turned into our main wheels for the rest of the trip.

We took those things across Germany, toured the cities and the countryside, road the hell out of them, left them outside during intense rainstorms, may or may not have crashed one or both of them at various points during the trip, and basically did the best we could to push those bikes to their limits. They took everything we could throw at them and asked for more.

NIO recently debuted its upcoming ET7 sedan in Germany, representing the EV’s European debut. While the Chinese automaker continues to roll out its electric ES8 SUV in Norway this month, we now know plans to expand further into Europe next year, beginning with Germany.

A recent job post by Chinese automaker NIO offers a potential hint that the company plans to expand its sales presence in the EU to Germany next. While NIO is currently in the process of shipping superchargers and battery swap stations to Norway as the first stop on its European tour, expanding to Germany makes sense for several reasons.

German electric utility company EnBW has announced it is implementing a flagship charging station at the Kamener Kreuz autobahn interchange. When complete, the 52 charging points will make it the largest public fast charging station in Europe, according to EnBW.

The German auto industry and its 800,000 jobs are threatened if it can’t transition to EVs fast enough. The country’s politicians, and automotive executives, have a unified message. As Bavaria’s prime minister Markus Söder put it today: “Tesla is not bad, but others can do it too.”

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Germany has increased electric vehicle incentives as part of their post-pandemic stimulus package. One measure is going to boost sales of lower-priced EVs like Tesla Model 3 and VW ID.3.
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EV sales were forecast to grow by about 35% in Europe this year, as the EU implements more stringent rules on CO2 emissions. Those forecasts correctly identified the direction of electric-vehicle sales. But based on January sales numbers in Germany, the continent’s largest car market, we could see much bigger gains compared to a year ago.

BEV sales in Germany last month were up 61%, and plug-in hybrids shot up 307%. That’s in a German car market that saw a 7.3% reduction in overall car registrations year-over-year.

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Shell has announced a plan to increase their EV fast-charging presence in Germany, up to 200 total charging points from their currently announced 100.

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Germany has taken the lead over Norway in annual EV sales for the first time, edging out Norway for total sales since the start of this year, as reported by Bloomberg. Currently, Germany’s 2019 total is 57,533 EVs, while Norway has sold 56,893.

This would be good news for Germany — if it weren’t so embarrassing for them and the rest of Europe.  Norway is a tiny country with a population of 5.3 million, where the main industry is oil, and where the whole country is cold. Germany’s population is roughly 16 times larger than Norway’s. And yet, Norway has still had higher EV sales than every country in Europe until now.

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