Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Transportation Power

Germany Plans $1.4 Billion In Incentives For Electric Cars (bloomberg.com) 155

An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg article: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government reached a deal with automakers to jointly spend 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) on incentives to boost sluggish electric-car sales. Buyers will be able to receive as much as 4,000 euros in rebates to help offset the higher price of an electric vehicle, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said at a press conference in Berlin. Purchasers of hybrid cars will get as much as 3,000 euros off the price. The industry will shoulder 50 percent of the cost. The program is set to start in May, pending approval from the German parliament's budget committee, he said. "The goal is to move forward as quickly as possible on electric vehicles," Schaeuble told reporters, adding that the aim is to begin offering the incentives next month. "With this, we are giving an impetus."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Germany Plans $1.4 Billion In Incentives For Electric Cars

Comments Filter:
  • Interesting that while many other countries have had incentives in place for 5 yrs or more, Germany has waited until its domestic automakers got on board.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I always found it funny that no body wants electric cars, you have to give them money to get them to buy them.

      America just prints money so the cost dose not matter, no one cares about the national debt. But how do other countries that can't just print money give billions away? Funny that countries spend so much money on imaginary problems.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        What the fuck are you even attempting to say?

      • by Zuriel ( 1760072 )

        Electric car incentives are because electric cars are currently significantly more expensive to manufacture. The incentives bring the cost to the buyer down closer to the price of a gas car.

        Nobody says, "I really want a car that's louder, smellier, and helps fund Saudi Arabia!" They buy gas because it's cheaper. So far. Another 5-10 years and electric cars will get down to gas's price point, on top of being much cheaper to run. Reaching that point sooner is the point of electric car incentives.

        • They buy gas because it's cheaper. So far.

          And, in particular, they buy because the up-front costs are lower. The EU has made some fairly big wins by gradually pushing up the minimum efficiency of household appliances that you're allowed to sell. Most people don't think about the 5-year or even 2-year cost of ownership for an appliance that they're going to keep for 10 years, they look first and foremost at the sticker price. If the sticker price is 10-20% cheaper, a lot of people buy them even if they're going to have spent more in total by the

    • Interesting that while many other countries have had incentives in place for 5 yrs or more, Germany has waited until its domestic automakers got on board.

      The USA makes protectionist laws for the benefit of specific companies. Germany makes protectionist laws for the benefit of whole industries. Of course, who can get into the industries to begin with is tightly controlled through massive regulation.

    • It's by far the largest industry in Germany with enormous lobbying power (both direct and indirect), of course they're going to do their best to accommodate the car manufacturers.

  • Didn't Germany also commit to shutting down all their Nuke Power and not building anymore? Wonder were all that electricity will come from, only so many places in Germany for wind and hydro...

    • Germany is plastered with wind plants all over.
      2015 the percentage of renewables was 35%.

      Germany has a "base load" of about 40% of peak. So at night you can basically load your car for free. Plenty of power.

      • Of course, Germany is building out new coal plants, regardless of the CO2 issues.
        But, given the choice of using more Russian nat gas or doing coal, I think I would prefer the later.
        Too bad Merkel screwed up with shutting down the nukes so quickly.
        • by Uecker ( 1842596 )

          Germany is not really expanding the use of coal (only 10 TWh more comparing 2015 to 2010 but it was at much higher levels previously - so clearly no new plants required) and it added much more renewables (+90 TWh) than it it removed nuclear (-50 TWh). And yes gas dropped too (-30 TWh) while production increased (+20 TWh).

          • this was just 6 months ago. [wordpress.com]
            I believe that they have several more new ones that they are adding.
            • Yes, they replace older and less efficient coal power plants that are decommissioned. Germany won't exit coal power any time soon because it is the only domestic source and relying on imports is dangerous.

              • Nevertheless most of the hard coal (Steinkohle) we burn is imported.

                http://bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/... [bmwi.de]

                It is in german but the first table shows the import countries and amounts.

                The country names are hopefully self explaining. The first column per year "Kohle" is coal, the second "Koks Kohle" is treated coal for steel production.

                Germany still keeps its own hard coal mines open, heavy subsidized, probably the most unprofitable coal mines of the planet.

                We are digging right now about 1500 meters deep, the deepes

                • I used to live in the Ruhr area for about 15 years, so yes, I know.
                  The subsidies are not only for securing a domestic fossil fuel source, but also for development of mining equipment that gets exported. I think coal will be only abandoned when the majority of electrical power generation will come from renewables, so maybe in 15-20 years, not earlier.

            • by Uecker ( 1842596 )

              A plant which goes online now has been planned at least a decade ago. And a lot of coal projects actually have been cancelled. So that some plants go online now does not imply that the use of coal is expanding. The new coal plants which will go online now will reduce the amount of CO2 from coal because they are more efficient. So you can put a completely different spin to this: http://reneweconomy.com.au/201... [reneweconomy.com.au] But to get an unbiased view I would recommend to look at actual numbers about electricity genera

              • Normally, I have great appreciation for Merkel. She has a pretty level head and is forward thinking. But her closing all of the nuke plants prior to coal was pure foolishness. 1 or 2 of the old ones made sense, but not all. Germany has multiple designs with decent safety.
                • Nukes don't make sense in Germany. The land is settled very densely, the only domestic uranium sources were exhausted by the Soviets decades ago, there is still no permanent radioactive waste repository (Bavaria, the state with the most nuclear power plants, flatly refuses to deal with radioactive waste) and the temporary storage facilities are leaking, a fact that the operators have tried to hide. Nuclear power is also horribly expensive compared even to renewables. In fact, nuclear phase-out has been deci

    • They are currently increasing their coal. They continue to add wind, which would help at recharging during the night time, but not so much for daytime.
    • by Uecker ( 1842596 )

      From 2010 to 2015, Germany did add 90 TWh per year from renewables while shutting down 50 TWh of nuclear. Nuclear is now less than 100 TWh per year. Where do you see a problem?

    • Noone will buy an electric car. Furthermore the subsidies only apply when the car industry is paying half of it. So nothing will happen.

  • Merkel is letting her mask slip, revealing herself as a traditional East German. Letting people have actual cars (as opposed to glorified golfcarts) is verboten unless one is a member of the nomenklatura.

    This kind of stuff belongs to the GDR era, not the modern day.

    • Pretty much everyone who's tried a Tesla Model S prefers it to gas powered cars. That's why marques such as Ferrari and BMW are at the very least having to produce hybrids, if not EVs themselves. A few more years and a gas-powerd car will seem as attractive as monochrome TV.

  • Make electric cars cheaper without sacrificing so much range so they have parity with gas powered cars. Then take all the money you would have put in to incentives and create infrastructure. Stop paying people to buy in to technology and start making the technology desirable to have.

    • by haruchai ( 17472 )

      Make electric cars cheaper without sacrificing so much range so they have parity with gas powered cars. Then take all the money you would have put in to incentives and create infrastructure. Stop paying people to buy in to technology and start making the technology desirable to have.

      Pay attention, Slashdotters. Elon Musk is in da house!

      • by kuzb ( 724081 )

        Elon isn't doing this. He's making cars the majority of people can't afford. Electric cars need a 300 mile range for $25k new with the infrastructure to back it up or adoption will never be as good as we'd like it to be.

        It's OK to have luxury electrics, but if they make up the entire market it will never take off.

        • by haruchai ( 17472 )

          "He's making cars the majority of people can't afford. Electric cars need a 300 mile range for $25k new with the infrastructure to back it up"

          Dude, wtf universe are you viewing? If by "the majority of people" you're counting every human being, then you're correct BUT they can't afford your fantasy $25k 300 mile EV either. Why do you think most of Asia - where "the majority of people" live - gets around by bicycle & scooter??

          But 400,000 people, most of whom can't afford any of Tesla's current lineup did

        • Technology always starts out expensive, and gradually comes down in price with innovations, improved yield and scale. And as it comes down in price, more people get on-board. Tesla demonstrates that perfectly as the cost of subsequent models has reduced.

          There is no magic threshold of specs above which EVs will "take off". They are already taking off. The pace will just increase as they get better value.

  • I wonder how much of that money is coming from VW?

  • They should cut the subsidies on the hybrids. At the least, cut em next year to zero.
    And then on the batteries, give them based on the battery size. The bigger the battery, the more subsidy they should have. The reason is that EVs charging at nighttime will help balance the electrical demand/grid.
  • Here in Germany, the main issue why people do not buy electric cars is not that they are slightly more expensive than standard cars (talking about stuff like the e-Golf, not Tesla), it is that the infrastructure is not there and so electric cars are not practical. People look at electric cars and ask "where am I supposed to charge that?". Many people park their car on the streets, so they simply cannot charge it over night, or they have a garage with no suitable power outlet, so that the incentives would ha

    • "4000 Euros in incentives won't magically make a power outlet appear on the street where you park your car over night."

      Meanwhile, at your Western neighbors (Netherlands), charging poles are popping up all over the cities. Buy an electric car and in many places they will put a charging pole for two cars, with dedicated charging-only parking space next to it, right in your street. They pay for themselves, partially, because the kWh price is a bit higher than what you'd pay at home (I think 0.05 EUR on top of

    • So all these incentives will do is make rich people (who can afford it anyway) save 4000 Euros when they buy a Tesla or i8 as a 2nd or 3rd car.

      I am an American who has lived in Germany for about 25% of his life. This is exactly a give away to the well-to-do elite class before an election in 2017. A Tesla costs double to three times the average annual wages. An E-Golf costs about the average annual wage. Note that >50% workers fall far under the average. I estimate that less than 10% of the population could afford an electro-auto with or without the rebate. This program will only further increase resentment among the 1/3 of the population who pa

      • Not really only for the well to do! A few years ago, if you were going to get a Nissan Leaf under one of their programs, you could lease the car for only €199/month. At this moment, I have many friends seriously pondering about becoming electric car drivers themselves and they are not thinking Tesla S necessarily, because there are other options. Some of them do not even need a 2000€ power socket installed which is not really necessary if you are going to charge overnight. Notice that for busines
  • "[...to boost sluggish electric-car sales...]" Why are German electric cars sluggish?! (;-) (Just kidding, for those of you about to reply with the obvious correction!)

The best things in life go on sale sooner or later.

Working...