Carmakers are under pressure to electrify their car fleets to comply with EU climate and air quality targets. Moreover, the German government's climate action programme stipulates that up to ten million e-cars are put on the road in the country by 2030.
However, just over 83,000 purely electric cars and 340,000 hybrid cars were registered in Germany in January 2019, and about 63,000 additional new purely electric cars were registered throughout that year. Sales is accelerating, as around 97,000 electric cars were sold in Germany, up to and including November, an annual increase of 49 percent.
E-mobility still “very expensive”
Deutsche Bank warned that the German e-vehicle market has been “largely driven by regulation” and “less by market forces”. Without subsidies, e-cars are “still a niche”, analysts said, noting the technology is “a very expensive way of avoiding carbon emissions.”
New electric car registrations only reached a 2.6 percent market share in the European Union this year, but 30-50 percent market share would be needed by 2030 to achieve Germany’s targeted CO2 limits for new car fleets, Deutsche Bank Research finds.
Car makers traditionally have a big lobby in Germany, and the industry recently announced ambitious plans to raise the share of e-cars in their product portfolio, in competition with rival electric car makers in Asia and the United States.
In November, Tesla announced to Gigafactory-4 – its first European factory for battery cells and e-vehicles – in Germany, just south east of Berlin. There, Tesla plans to build batteries, power-trains and vehicles, starting with the much-anticipated Model Y – an electric SUV. Market observers hope this will bring an “enormous boost” for the country's lagging shift to electric mobility.