Climate target a long way off: German carmakers rely on electricity

When it comes to e-mobility, many eyes are on Tesla. The US carmaker cannot compete with domestic competition on the European market. The industry association VDA praises the German manufacturers as "European champions". But there is still room for improvement.

In the current e-car boom, German manufacturers see themselves clearly ahead across Europe – and also have a clear advantage over the American e-car pioneer Elon Musk with his Tesla brand. "The German automotive industry is already the European champion in electromobility," said the President of the VDA, Hildegard Müller.

They are leaders in the European market and have significantly increased their market share in the current year. "This is all the more remarkable because with 600,000 new electric cars in Europe, the total number has almost doubled this year. Europe has even overtaken the Chinese e-market. And: Europe has 60 percent more electric cars on the road than the USA "said Müller. In the domestic market alone, the German manufacturers significantly increased their market share in the first three quarters from 50 percent to 66 percent.

The demand for e-cars has recently increased significantly across Europe, also due to increased state purchase premiums, which are intended to boost demand in the midst of the corona pandemic. In October, the number of newly registered cars with electric or plug-in hybrid drives was almost 48,000 according to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). That corresponds to a market share in the month of 17.5 percent. For comparison: In January, with a good 16,000 cars, it was still 6.7 percent of the market. The federal government considers seven to ten million electric cars on German roads in Germany to be necessary by 2030 in order to achieve climate protection goals.

"Now the expansion of the charging infrastructure must follow suit"

However, car traffic is still a long way from achieving this goal: at the beginning of 2020, only 0.5 (0.3) percent of all-electric cars or plug-in cars were in total 47.7 (2019: 47.1) million. Hybrid. Experts see a need to catch up, especially in the charging network. The European manufacturer association Acea recently pointed out that the expansion of the charging infrastructure was not keeping pace with the rapidly growing demand for e-cars. "Now the expansion of the charging infrastructure has to follow suit. The municipalities are lagging behind," said Müller.

Even outside the German market, the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) sees German manufacturers in a leading position: In Western Europe, the market share has risen to 46 percent, a third more than in the same month last year. This is particularly evident in Norway, where e-mobility is extremely advanced: "There, the share of e-cars in all new car sales rose to almost 70 percent in the first eight months of the current year," reported the VDA. "Every second e-car sold in Norway today comes from German suppliers. German manufacturers sell more e-cars in Norway in just five weeks than Tesla over the whole year."