Cities in Germany roll back incentives for e-vehicles. Here’s why

Many municipalities instituted privileges for EVs to promote sustainable mobility. Now, a lot more people are driving electric, so maybe it’s time to normalise legislation

After years of local initiatives to promote the purchase of electric cars, some cities in Germany are now rolling back on those incentives. As the DPA reports, city officials claim that the time of fiercely promoting electric mobility is over and now people need better charging infrastructure to cope with their growing popularity.

The report focuses on three cities in Lower Saxony – all of which have announced an end to free parking for electric vehicles at some point in 2022. Local leaders explain that the incentives were initially aimed at popularising sustainable vehicles. Now, as that goal has been reached, it is time to take back some privileges.

Increasing demand makes incentives redundant

Recently, city officials in Göttingen decided that starting 1 July, parking fees will also apply to electric cars in public parking spaces. In Braunschweig, fees came back at the start of the year, while Nordhorn took away free parking in February after applying the measure for just four years.

Nordhorn officials continued by explaining that in 2019 there were just 35 electric cars registered in the municipality. In 2022, that number grew to 1,000. The city of Braunschweig, where free parking for electric vehicles was introduced in 2014, is also abandoning the practice because of the constantly growing demand and a lack of charging stations – much-needed infrastructure to support the sector.

An overview of electric cars in Germany

While the data suggests that the share of electric cars in Germany is clearly rising, they are a long way off from becoming the norm. Also, projections do not even suggest that they will over conventional vehicles any time soon.

According to Statista, in 2018 electric vehicles made up just 0.3% of the total number in Germany. That grew to about 0.5% by 2019 and more than doubled to 1.2% in 2020. Researchers suggest that the country would experience an acceleration effect in the coming years, with the popularity of electric cars on the rise worldwide and fossil-fuelled vehicles slowly losing their grip on the market.

Projections claim that, if current trends continue, in 2025, electric cars will make up 11.1% of the total fleet in Germany, while that number would rise to 24.4% by 2030 – still well below the halfway point.