It was over overnight: With the budget adjustments, the federal government announced the immediate end of the electric car bonus. But many manufacturers reacted quickly.
Despite the abrupt subsidy stop for purely electric cars, significantly more such vehicles were newly registered in Germany in December than a month before. In the last month of 2023, around 54,700 new electric cars hit the roads, according to figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Almost 45,000 electric cars were newly registered in November. According to KBA, a total of around 524,000 purely electric cars hit the roads in 2023 – an increase of 11.4 percent compared to 2022. The share of purely electric cars in all new car registrations was therefore 18.4 percent.
The federal government had actually planned to grant a purchase bonus of up to 4,500 euros for new electric cars until the end of 2023. In addition, there was a half allowance from the manufacturer, i.e. up to 2250 euros. On January 1, 2024, the state premium should be reduced to 3,000 euros and then expire at the end of 2024. Because the federal government had to correct its budget planning, this funding abruptly stopped in mid-December. Numerous car manufacturers subsequently announced that they would pay for the premiums themselves. For many buyers, the price of the vehicle has ultimately not changed. Delays between order and delivery could also have meant that the number of new registrations did not initially collapse in December.
A total of around 2.84 million cars were newly registered in Germany in 2023 – 7.3 percent more than in 2022. In particular, the number of new commercial registrations increased significantly, while slightly fewer private cars were newly registered than in 2022. The share of commercial New registrations were 67.1 percent.
Source: Stern
