Plug in electric vehicles in Germany

Government incentives

In May 2010, under its National Platform for Electric Mobility, Chancellor Angela Merkel set the goal to bring one million electric vehicles on German roads by 2020. However, the government also announced that it would not provide subsidies to the sales of plug-in electric cars but instead it would only fund research in the area of electric mobility. As of April 2016, electric vehicles and plug-ins in Germany are exempt from the annual circulation tax for a period of five years from the date of their first registration. In 2016, the annual circulation tax exemption was extended from five to ten years, backdated to 1 January 2016.

The private use of a company car is treated as taxable income in Germany and measured at a flat monthly rate of 1% of the vehicle's gross list price. So plug-in electric cars have been at a disadvantage since their price tag can be as much as double that of a car using a conventional internal combustion engine due to the high cost of the battery. In June 2013 German legislators approved a law that ends the tax disadvantage for corporate plug-in electric cars. The law, backdated to 1 January 2013, allows private users to offset the list price with €500 per unit of battery size, expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh). The maximum offset was set at €10,000 corresponding to a 20 kWh battery. the amount one can offset will sink annually by €50 per kilowatt hour. As part of the package of financial incentives approved in 2016, private owners of plug-in electric vehicles that charge their cars in their employer premises are exempted from declaring this perk as a cash benefit in their income tax return. Employers who provide this perk are allowed to discount from their income tax a 25% of the lump sum value of the cash benefit. These two fiscal benefits apply only from 1 January 2017 until the end of 2020.

In August 2014, the federal government announced its plan to introduce non-monetary incentives through new legislation to be effective by early 2015. The proposed user benefits include measures to privilege battery-powered cars, fuel cell vehicles and some plug-in hybrids, just like Norway does, by granting local governments the authority to allow these vehicles into bus lanes, and to offer free parking and reserved parking spaces in locations with charging points. Not all plug-in hybrids will qualify for the benefits, only those with CO₂ emissions of no more than 50 g/km or an all-electric range of over 30 km (19 mi) are eligible. The range criteria will rise to 40 km (25 mi) starting in 2018. The Bundestag passed the Electric Mobility Act in March 2015 authorizing local government to grant these non-monetary incentives, which are not mandatory. The law also provides issuing special license plates for electric vehicles to allow proper identification to avoid abuses of these privileges. As of March 2015, just 12 municipalities are considering to allow electric vehicles in the bus lanes in their jurisdiction. Most cities, including Hamburg and Munich, are not willing to allow electric cars in their bus lanes.

The special license plate authorized by the 2015 Electric Mobility Act adds the letter "E" at the end of the license number. Owners of all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids with a minimum all-electric range of 30 km (19 mi) can apply for the special license. The minimum range for eligible plug-in hybrids goes up to 40 km (25 mi) from January 1, 2018.

According to the fourth progress report of the German National Platform for Electric Mobility, only about 24,000 plug-in electric cars are on German roads by the end of November 2014, well behind the target of 100,000 unit goal set for 2014. As a result, Chancellor Angela Merkel recognized in December 2014 that the government has to provide more incentives to meet the goal of having one million electric cars on the country's roads by 2020. Among others, the federal government is considering to offer a tax break for zero-emission company cars, more subsidies to expand charging infrastructure, particularly to deploy more public fast chargers, and more public funding for research and development of the next generation of rechargeable batteries.

Purchase incentives

At the beginning of 2016, German politicians from the three parties in Mrs. Merkel's ruling coalition and auto executives began talks to introduce a subsidy for green car buyers worth up to €5,000 (US$5,500) to boost sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars. As of February 2016, the German government proposal is for the auto industry to cover 40% of the cost of the purchase subsidy. Private buyers would get the full €5,000 subsidy, while corporate buyers would receive €3,000 for each electric car, and the program is expected to run until 2020, the deadline set to achieve the goal of 1 million electric cars on German roads. Incentives will fall by €500 each year. In March 2016, Nissan Europe announced its support to the green car incentive and its commintment to double the government's E-premium incentive when buying a Nissan electric car, with a reduction of the purchase price of the same amount of the subsidy. Nissan Center Europe CEO said "we remain convinced that the goal of one million electric cars by 2020 is still achievable." According to Nissan if from now on electric car sales double every year until 2020, it is still possible to achieve the government goal.

An incentive scheme to promote plug-in electric vehicle adoption was approved in April 2016 with a budget of €1 billion (US$1.13 billion). A total of €600 million (US$678 million) is reserved for the purchase subsidies, which are expected to run until all the money is disbursed, estimated to last until 2019 at the latest. Another €300 million (US$339 million) are budgeted to finance the deployment of charging stations in cities and on autobahn highway stops. And another €100 million (US$113 million) would go toward purchasing electric cars for federal government fleets. The program is aimed to promote the sale of 400,000 electric vehicles. The cost of the purchase incentive is shared equally between the government and automakers. Electric car buyers get a €4,000 (US$4,520) discount while buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles get a discount of €3,000 (US$3,390). Premium cars, such as the Tesla Model S and BMW i8, are not eligible to the incentive because there is a cap of €60,000 (US$67,800) for the purchase price. Only electric vehicles purchased after 18 May 2016 are eligible for the bonus and the owner must keep the new electric car at least nine months. The same rule applies for leasing.

As of September 2016, BMW, Citroën, Daimler, Ford, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo had signed up to participate in the scheme. In May 2016, Nissan announced the company decided to raise the bonus with an additional €1,000 (US$1,130) to €5,000 (US$5,650) for customers of its all-electric Leaf car and e-NV200 utility van. The online application system to claim the bonus went into effect on 2 July 2016. As of September 2016, a total of 26 plug-in electric cars and vans are eligible for the purchase bonus. According to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), a total of 4,451 applications have been made for the government subsidy for the purchase of a plug-in electric model as of 30 September 2016, consisting of 2,650 all-electrics and 1,801 plug-in hybrids. As of 30 September 2016, the federal states with the most claims are Bayern (1,130), Baden-Württemberg (873), and Nordrhein-Westfalen (726).

As of 1 September 2016, the following 26 plug-in electric cars and vans are eligible for the purchase bonus: Audi A3 e-tron, BMW 225xe, BMW 330e, BMW i3, Citroën Berlingo Electric, Citroën C-Zero, Ford Focus Electric, Kia Soul EV, Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive (B 250e), Mercedes-Benz C350 e, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV, Nissan e-NV200 5- and 7-seater Combi, Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn, Peugeot Partner Electric, Renault Kangoo Z.E., Renault Zoe, Smart Fortwo electric drive, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Volkswagen e-Golf, Volkswagen e-Up!, Volkswagen Golf GTE, Volkswagen Passat GTE, and Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid. As of 30 September 2016, the models with the most applications are the Renault Zoe (876), BMW i3 (766), Audi A3 e-tron (462), BMW 225xe (440), and Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV (353).

Controversies

According to Der Spiegel, by the early fourth quarter of 2015 the Kia Soul EV ranked as the top selling plug-in electric car in Germany during 2015 with 2,459 units sold, with almost 1,000 registered in October, nevertheless, there were actually only a few of them on German roads. At the time, about 1,400 Soul EVs had been shipped to Norway and sold as used cars, where availability of new Soul EVs was limited. According to the magazine, Kia Motors is registering the electric cars in Germany and then shipping them to Norway, which does not belong to the European Union, as a strategy to reduce the average CO₂ fleet emissions of the entire Hyundai-Kia Group. This strategy allows the carmaker to comply with European Union regulations that mandate 130 grams of CO₂ emission per km in 2015, and so they avoid to pay a fine of €70 million per year for each gram above the established average limit. According to German authorities this loophole is legal. A total of 2,044 Kia Soul EVs were imported to Norway as used cars during 2015.

National Platform for Electric Mobility

The German National Platform for Electric Mobility ("Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität") is an advisory council of the German Federal Government for electric vehicle introduction. It consists of the top representatives of industry (10 Members), politics (6), science (3), associations (3) and unions (1). It was officially established on 3 May 2010 during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel. Its task is to push on the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility ("Nationaler Entwicklungsplan Elektromobilität"). The goal for 2020 of the NPE is to develop Germany to the leading supplier and lead market for electric mobility and to gain employment in the country.

Charging infrastructure

As of November 2014, the country had 4,800 public charging stations. Several pilot projects have been implemented based on partnerships of carmakers and utility companies.

Daimler AG and utility RWE AG run a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital, Berlin, called "E-Mobility Berlin." They have set up 60 charging stations in Berlin (September 2009) and planned to expand the system to include 500 charging stations. Daimler has provided for 100 Smart electric drive cars to the project. The second phase started in November 2010. The RWE subsidiary "RWE Mobility" created cooperations with the automobilist club ADAC, car rental service Sixt and car park provider APCOA to equip all locations with charging stations. since mid of 2009. Renault joined the RWE Mobility program in September 2009 whereby the project goals of erecting charging stations were enlarged to mid of 2011 Renault's partner Nissan has joined the RWE-mobility program in June 2010 announcing that RWE will create a network of 1,000 charging stations until the end of the year 2010 focusing on the Berlin and Rhein-Ruhr region. In August 2010 a cooperation with fuel retailer PKN Orlen was announced – they planned to equip 30 gas stations in Hamburg with charging points for electric vehicles.

Carmaker BMW and utility Vattenfall run a joint electric car and charging test project with Mini E electric cars. A total of 100 trial vehicles were assigned. Testing in Berlin began in June 2009, and for the second phase, a total of 70 vehicles were delivered in March 2011 to private customers and fleet users. Field testing began in Munich in September 2010, for a leasing fee of €400 (approx. US$517) per month. Up to June 2011 there were 42 public charge points by Vattenfall in Berlin and the company is in the process of building 50 public charge points in Hamburg.

Carmaker VW and utility E.ON run a joint electric car and charging station test project in the German capital, Berlin and in Wolfsburg. The "Electric Mobility Fleet Test" was started as a research project with mostly partners in German universities using the VW hybrid cars (to be tested in 2010). E.ON has later joined also in the MINI E project providing the infrastructure in Munich which was started in July 2009. erecting an initial series of 11 charging stations (May 2010) enlarging it continuously (21 locations in December 2010). The region test in Munich has been extended with BMW i prototypes (BMW i3 and BMW i8) as well as Audi e-tron models (project eflott) in 2011. E.ON has announced to provide the eflott project with 200 public charging stations the Munich region.

Carmaker Daimler, the utility EnBW and the government of Baden-Württemberg announced in June 2010 to expand the "Landesinitiative Elektromobilität" program with the "e-mobility Baden-Württemberg" project that includes erecting 700 charging stations in the state until the end of 2011. Additionally there will be 200 electric vehicles added to the test including some electric trucks. The government of Baden-Württemberg has assigned €28.5 million to support EV research up to 2014. Meanwhile, EnBW has sponsored 500 E-Bikes in the Elektronauten project in 2010 which can use 13 charging stations in the Stuttgart region. EnBW has claimed to offer 250 charging stations for the Elektronauten 500 project in May 2011 although the map has not been updated. Bosch has developed a new charging station type for EnBW that is capable for 63A – the station was certified on 11. April 2011 by DEKRA and EnBW has announced to install 260 charge stations in the following weeks for MeRegioMobil project in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. In November 2011 the Car2Go carsharing service announced plans to operate in Stuttgart in 2012 – EnBW reassured to have 500 charging spots ready in time with the roll out of the Car2Go vehicles in the second half of 2012.

Sales

As of December 2016, a total of 74,754 plug-in electric cars have been registered in Germany since 2010. The country is the largest passenger car market in Europe, however ranks as the eighth largest plug-in market in the world and the fifth largest in Europe as of December 2016. About 80% of the new plug-in cars registered in the country through 30 September 2016 were registered since January 2014, with 13,049 units registered in 2014, 23,464 registered in 2015, and 17,074 during the first nine months of 2016. The official German definition of electric vehicles changed at the beginning of 2013, before that, official statistics only registered all-electric vehicles because plug-in hybrids were accounted together with conventional hybrids. As a result, the registrations figures for 2012 and older do not account for total new plug-in electric car registrations.

The fleet of electric car registered in the country increased from 1,558 units in 2009 to 2,307 in 2010. The electric car stock in 2011 increased 96.8% from 2010 to 4,541 units registered, and up 56.7% from 2011 to 7,114 units in 2012, reaching 12,156 registered cars on 1 January 2014. At the beginning of 2014 registrations of plug-in electric vehicles represented a 0.028% market share of all passenger vehicles registered in Germany. Most of the plug-in stock in the country was registered by corporate buyers. The plug-in hybrid segment in the German market in 2014 experienced an explosive growth of 226.9% year-over-year, and the overall plug-in segment increased 75.5% from a year earlier. The surge in sales continued in 2015, the plug-in hybrid segment grew 125.1% year-over-year, while the all-electric segment climbed 91.2% from the previous year.

2011-2012

During 2011, a total of 2,154 pure electric cars were registered in the country, up from 541 units in 2010. All-electric car sales for 2011 were led by the Mitsubishi i-MiEV family with 683 i-MiEVs, 208 Peugeot iOns and 200 Citroën C-Zeros, representing 50.6% of all electric car registrations in 2011. Plug-in hybrid registrations totaled 266 units in 2011, 241 Opel Amperas and 25 Chevrolet Volts, for a total of 2,420 plug-in electric vehicles registered in 2011.

A total of 2,956 all-electric vehicles were registered in Germany during 2012, a 37.2% increase over 2011. When 901 registered plug-in hybrids are accounted for, 2012 registrations climb to 3,857 units, and sales of plug-in electric car represented a 0.12% market share of new passenger vehicles sold in the country in 2012. Most sales in the country were made by corporate and fleet customers and 1,493 all-electric vehicles were registered by the automobile industry, as demonstration or research vehicles. Registrations of plug-in electric-drive vehicles were led by the Opel Ampera extended-range electric car with 828 units, followed by the Smart electric drive with 734 units. In addition, a total of 2,413 Renault Twizys were sold during 2012, making Germany the top selling European market for the electric quadricycle.

2013-2015

A total of 7,436 new plug-in electric cars were registered in Germany in 2013, consisting of 6,051 all-electric cars and 1,385 plug-in hybrids. Total registrations at the end of 2013 reached 12,156 units. The market share of plug-in electric passenger cars increased to 0.25% in 2013 from 0.12% in 2012. The Smart electric drive led new plug-in car registrations in 2013 with 2,146 units, followed by Renault Zoe with 1,019, the Nissan Leaf with 855 units, and the BMW i3 with 559.

Registrations of plug-in electric cars totaled 13,049 units in 2014, consisting of 8,522 all-electric cars and 4,527 plug-in hybrids. The plug-in segment achieved a market share of 0.4% of new car sales that year. The BMW i3 ended 2014 as the top selling plug-in electric car with 2,233 units registered, followed by the Smart Fortwo ED with 1,589, and the Renault Zoe with 1,498. Accounting for registrations of plug-in electric cars between January 2010 and June 2014, the leading model was the Smart electric drive with 3,959 units, with a significant number in use by carsharing services, followed by the BMW i3 with 1,937 units, Nissan Leaf with 1,693 units, Renault Zoe with 1,532, and Opel Ampera with 1,450 units.

Plug-in hybrid registrations totaled 11,101 units in 2015, up 145% from 2014, and all-electric cars totaled 12,363 units registered, up 45% from 2014. Combined sales of the two segments totaled 23,464 units. The plug-in segment achieved a market share of 0.7% of new car sales that year, up from 0.4% in 2014. Registrations totaled 3,176 plug-in cars in December 2015, achieving both, the highest monthly sales volume ever and a record market share of 1.28% of new car registrations that month. The top selling models in 2015 were the Kia Soul EV with 3,839 units, followed by the BMW i3 with 2,271, the Mitsubishi Outlander P-HEV with 2,128, the Volkswagen Golf GTE with 2,109 and the Audi A3 e-tron with 1,839.

The magazine Der Spiegel questioned whether the Kia Soul EV was actually the top selling plug-in electric car in the country, as about 2,000 electric cars were registered in Germany and then imported to Norway as used cars, as part of a strategy of the Hyundai-Kia Group to comply with European Union CO₂ regulations. (see Controversies section above). There were about 50,000 plug-in electric cars registered in Germany by the end of 2015.

2016

During the first three quarters of 2016, sales of plug-in hybrids surpassed sales of all-electric cars for the first time in the country. A total of 17,074 units were registered, consisting of 7,678 all-electric cars and 9,396 plug-in hybrids. The plug-in segment achieved a market share of 0.7% of new car sales. The top selling models during the first eight months of 2016 were the Renault Zoe (1,836), BMW i3 (1,237), Tesla Model S (978), Audi A3 e-tron (908), and Volkswagen Golf GTE (852). The introduction of the purchase bonus did not produce immediate effect on plug-in car sales until September 2016, when registrations peaked to 3,061 units, consisting of 1,641 all-electric cars, up 76.6% year-on-year, and 1,420 plug-in hybrids, up 36.8% year-on-year. Combined registrations of both type of plug-in accounted for 1.1% of new car registrations, allowing the German plug-in market share to pass the 1% mark for the first time during 2016.

Top selling models by year

The following table presents registrations of the top selling highway-capable plug-in electric cars available for retail customers by year between 2010 and June 2014.