E-car buyers have to fear for their purchase premium

Production of electric vehicles

Government subsidies for pure electric cars will decrease significantly from next year.

(Photo: dpa)

Berlin If you want to quickly buy an electric car at the end of the year, you have to be prepared for frustration and could possibly lose money. The Association of the Automotive Industry, the Association of International Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and the Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Trade warn of this.

In a letter to the municipal umbrella organizations, which is available to the Handelsblatt, manufacturers and dealers “urge the cities, districts and municipalities to maintain the ability of the vehicle registration offices to work in the last few days of this year, so that vehicles with alternative drive systems can still be used in the current year can be allowed”.

The reason for this is: “This is the only way to ensure that customers can make full use of the promotion (environmental bonus) for vehicles with alternative drive systems.”

Since 2016, the state has been subsidizing the purchase of cars with alternative drives so that consumers can switch from combustion engines to CO2-neutral technology. However, because the state is only promoting the purchase of a plug-in hybrid until the end of the year and the subsidies for purely electric cars will drop significantly from 2023, there is now a risk of a bottleneck towards the end of the year.

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Buyers can only apply for subsidies if the vehicle has already been registered. Accordingly, “approval of delivered vehicles before the end of the year is of great importance for many customers,” the association presidents explain in the letter.

“We are currently receiving worrying reports that some registration offices want to close in the middle of the month,” the associations continue to report. They ask that the competent authorities “implement approvals as needed, even with larger numbers of vehicles, even up to the last day of the year, even if they are applied for at very short notice”.

According to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, 1.55 million vehicles with alternative drives were sold, registered and subsidized by the end of October, of which 875,000 were purely electric cars, 671,000 were plug-in hybrids and 319 were fuel cell vehicles.

The federal government has set itself the goal of bringing at least 15 million fully electric cars onto the roads by 2030. Manufacturers and dealers still see themselves as “on the right path”, as the letter says, and “want to keep the positive development of climate-friendly vehicles in 2022 in an overall shrinking market”.

Companies will soon no longer receive grants

The Center Automotive Research (CAR) warns that the market for vehicles with alternative drives could even collapse soon given the falling subsidies. Accordingly, in view of the falling subsidy conditions, only half as many purely electric cars and plug-in hybrids would be sold.

For example, companies that are currently submitting the majority of applications for subsidies will no longer receive subsidies from September 2023. “A drought is on the horizon for electric cars in Germany,” states CAR director Ferdinand Dudenhöffer.

>> Read here: According to the study, the market for electric cars is threatened with a crash

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At the end of this week, the Federal Ministry of Economics wants to publish the new funding guideline in the Federal Gazette, which will then apply from January. Despite the foreseeable problems with the approval authorities at the end of the year, the house of Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) does not want to change the current approval procedure and also does not promise any goodwill arrangements.

“The date of the funding application, which requires vehicle registration, remains decisive for the funding,” said a spokeswoman when asked. “Changing the procedure due to current delivery difficulties of the manufacturers would have led to considerable additional bureaucracy for all parties involved in the application procedure.”

Corporations highlight supply chain issues

The industry refers to “difficulties in the supply and transport chains” this year. It is therefore “not always possible to deliver the vehicles at the desired times”. The Ministry of Economics counters: Already at the beginning of the year it “reacted to the existing delivery problems of the manufacturers” and extended the subsidy until the end of 2022.

Accordingly, a number of manufacturers are forced to grant their customers the missing subsidy as a discount.

>> Read here: The exaggerated warnings from the automotive suppliers: why the wave of bankruptcies is failing

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, 46 percent of newly registered vehicles were equipped with alternative drives by the end of October. In addition to electric cars and plug-in hybrids, this also includes gas, hydrogen and fuel cells. Pure electric cars had a share of 14.8 percent. There was another strong plus in November: More plug-in hybrids were sold, as were electric cars. Depending on the purchase price, there will still be subsidies for e-mobiles in 2023 alone.

To date, Volkswagen has sold the most eligible vehicles, followed by Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Renault. Tesla is in fifth place. With the new subsidy conditions, foreign manufacturers – especially from China – should benefit from the premium. It is only granted for inexpensive vehicles.

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