Volkswagen Wants More Done To Promote 100% Battery Electric Cars

Volkswagen is, in fact, so serious about 100% electric vehicles that it has threatened to leave the major German auto lobbying group if they continue to support all other forms of electrification.

If Volkswagen gets their way in Germany, incentives such as tax breaks for anything but 100% will be cut altogether. They are suggesting to the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) that a fund should be put in place to promote the mass adoption of affordable electric cars. One of the highlights of this fund would be that free charging would be provided for cars that retail for less than 20,000€.

In order to further push the idea of mass adoption, VW would use size as well to determine rebates. For example, an EV under four meters in length but with a range of more than 200 kilometers would come with a 5,000€ refund. If an EV is more than 4.65 meters in length, however, the refund would be of only 2 000€.

Likewise, current incentive and rebate programs for plug-in hybrids (PHEV) would be cut drastically to 1,500€ from today’s 3,000€ by 2020 and be eliminated completely by 2022.

From what we can make out in translated stories from the German Süddeutsche Zeitung and WELT AM SONNTAG websites, the lobby group and other automakers are not quite in line with VW’s somewhat drastic suggestions to solely focus on 100% electric cars.

Volkswagen had made it clear what their plans are for the future and their propositions here seem self-serving – this could be one of the many reasons there is and will be a fair amount of resistance from all concerned parties. The true goal behind these measures is that they “would lead to a visible focus on battery-electric vehicles, which, in contrast to PHEV models, make a greater contribution to CO₂ and emission avoidance.”