Between now and then, a governmental coalition will get 15 million EVs on the road.
The remainder of the European Union plans to phase out ICEs by 2035.
There are plenty of countries and regions globally that plan to ban the sale of new internal but very few of them have such big automotive industry players on their territory. Although Germany might harbour the Volkswagen Auto Group, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, all of which are already heavily invested in EVs, phasing out internal combustion engines won’t be such as easy task.
Volkswagen ID.3 | Photo: Volkswagen
Programs established in the past by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel have 1 million EVs on the road by the end of 2020. It’s late 2021 and there are only an estimated 570,000 registered battery-powered cars in the country or roughly 1% of its entire fleet. In order to achieve the lofty goal, Germany will have to get 15 million EVs registered and rolling.
Setting aside potential material and part supply issues, consumers are another very real hurdle.
“There isn’t much substance in the coalition agreement when it comes to reaching such high levels of EV sales in practice,” Giulio Mattioli, a researcher in the department of transport planning at the TU Dortmund University, told Bloomberg as reported by Insider. “Consumers will take some convincing.”
The goals set for 2030 will only be realized if Germany increases production and sales of EVs by 33% a year.
