Germans plan for 1 million EVs by 2020

subscribe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet agreed to a plan to get a million electric cars on Germany's roads by 2020 and transform the country into the world's top electric car market.

The plan includes 500 million euros (US$705.1 million) of funding for the construction of electric charging stations and programs to boost battery technology in Europe's biggest auto market.

"Our goal is to make Germany the leading market for electro-mobility," Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told reporters at a news conference in Berlin.

Germany's BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, welcomed the plan, as did VDA carmakers association, whose president Matthias Wissmann called the program's success of "great importance" for Germany.

But an industry expert and another automaker were more skeptical, pointing out that demand for electric cars is weak and that mass-produced models are still years away.

"It is indeed helpful, but don't expect to see a sales rush like with the cash-for-clunkers program," Willi Diez, head of the Automobile Industry Institute in the southern city of Nuertingen told Reuters.

The government supported its car-scrapping subsidy with five billion euros — 10 times more than the money now being allotted to develop the electric auto sector.

Chief Executive Rupert Stadler at Audi, a unit of Germany's Volkswagen, lowered expectations in a newspaper interview.

"In 20 years there will be mass-produced electric cars, but they should only make up around five to 10 percent of all overall automobiles," he told the Austrian Wiener Zeitung.

Related News

The Haves and Have-Nots of Electricity in California

PARADISE, CA - The intentional blackout by California’s largest utility this week put Forest Jones out of work and his son out of school. On Friday morning Mr. Jones, a handyman and single father, sat in his apartment above a tattoo parlor waiting for the power to come back on and for school to reopen.

“I’ll probably lose $400 or $500 dollars because of this,” said Mr. Jones, who lives in the town of Paradise, which was razed by fire last year and is slowly rebuilding. “Things have been really tough up here.”

Millions of people were affected by the blackout, which…

READ MORE
Europe is producing all-time highs of wind and solar energy

Europeans push back from Russian oil and gas

READ MORE

impact-of-ai-on-corporate-electricity-bills

The Impact of AI on Corporate Electricity Bills

READ MORE

africa renewable energy

Africa's Electricity Unlikely To Go Green This Decade

READ MORE

powerlines

Report call for major changes to operation of Nova Scotia's power grid

READ MORE