“Gift to the Auto Industry”
Environmental groups against higher premiums for e-cars
May 9, 2022, 5:31 p.m
Federal Transport Minister Wissing’s plans to extend and raise the state purchase premium for electric cars have met with criticism. Environmental groups accuse him of promoting the auto industry and not environmental protection. The coalition partner SPD also prefers to invest in rail.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing’s plans to increase and extend the purchase premiums for e-cars have met with criticism. Clear criticism of the plans came from environmental organizations such as the German Environmental Aid (DUH), the BUND and Greenpeace. DUH Federal Managing Director, Jürgen Resch, described the plans as “absurd”. The project would only save around four million tons of CO2 per year. A speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour on the motorway, on the other hand, could save 9.2 million tons of CO2.
The BUND chairman Olaf Bandt criticized the plans to the editorial network Germany as “FDP clientele politics”. Instead of promoting the purchase of cars, it would be better “to invest in new mobility with fewer cars,” explained Bandt. Greenpeace traffic expert Tobias Austrup also described the plans as “an extremely expensive gift to the auto industry”. For climate protection, on the other hand, they would bring “almost nothing”.
According to the “Handelsblatt”, the transport minister plans to extend the purchase premium for purely battery-electric vehicles or fuel cell cars until 2027. According to the report, anyone who buys an electric car for a maximum of 40,000 euros will receive a subsidy of 10,800 euros instead of the previous 6,000 euros. In addition, there is the subsidy from the manufacturers of 3000 euros, which they should also continue to grant until 2027.
SPD slows down Wissing
The Federal Ministry of Economics emphasized that the immediate climate protection program with individual measures from all departments as well as the expert evaluation of the climate protection effects are currently still being coordinated between the ministries. “Therefore, there are no final proposals yet.” One thing is clear: “We have some catching up to do in all areas in order to achieve our climate protection goals.”
The vice-chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Detlef Müller, criticized Wissing’s proposals to “Spiegel” as “half-baked”. Instead, Müller called for more investment in rail. Wissing’s proposals were “neither covered by the coalition agreement, nor were there discussions about deviating from the agreements reached so far”.