With neighbor France reconsidering support for diesel vehicles, Germany is also staking its claim in an electric-powered automotive future. This isn't news – Chancellor Angela Merkel has been promoting the idea of a million EVs on German streets by 2020 despite slow sales for a while now and VW is sort of on board – but there will need to be some work done to make it happen. Only about 24,000 EVs have been sold in Germany.
Merkel isn't only focused on cleaner cars. She's also pushing her country's power providers to cut emissions – the equivalent of 78 million tons of CO2 by 2020.
That's why Merkel is now saying she will support more incentives to get those million plug-in vehicles up and running. Bloomberg is reporting that Merkel recently said, "We see that further subsidies are necessary. We must speak with the German states about that." Potential EV subsidies include tax breaks for plug-in company cars, free parking in some municipal lots and access to bus lanes. Germany is also going to install 400 charging stations at rest stops on the Autobahn. Domestic pride may help, too. After letting Nissan and Tesla take the lead, German automakers will have 17 plug-in models for sale in Germany by the end of this year and 12 more are coming in 2015. There will also be a big electro-mobility conference in Berlin next summer."We see that further subsidies are necessary." – Angela Merkel
Merkel isn't only focused on cleaner cars. She's also pushing her country's power providers to cut emissions – the equivalent of 78 million tons of CO2 by 2020.
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