This April, the Federal Ministry of Economics presented plans to reform the environmental bonus for the purchase of electric cars, which would result in significantly less generous funding from 2023. The draft then went into coordination with the other departments, and it has now returned. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, more expensive electric cars will continue to be subsidized for a while, with rules that you can follow yourself a subsidy for a Tesla Model Y Performance receives. However, the funds for this are likely to be exhausted by 2023.
Still 2.5 billion euros electric car subsidy
The Handelsblatt initially reported on the agreement in the government on Tuesday, and in the evening it was confirmed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. According to the report it was preceded by a months-long dispute between the FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner and the Greens. Apparently, only the intention to stop paying an environmental bonus for plug-in hybrids from 2023 has remained true of the proposals of the Green Ministry of Economic Affairs.
What is new, however, is that according to the Handelsblatt, the subsidy should end as soon as the additional 2.5 billion euros have been used up. Instead of a time limit, a financial one should be introduced. This creates security for the state budget, but is likely to increase the uncertainty of electric car buyers, because a delivery date can be predicted more easily than the remaining volume in the environmental bonus pot at this point in time. An FDP representative told the newspaper that it might be empty before the end of 2023, and then it would really be over.
The rest of the traffic light compromise on electric car funding is more similar to the previous regulation than the Green draft. That’s how it should be with her List price limit of 40,000 euros net remain, which already applies to higher state subsidies; however, the payment drops from 6000 euros to 4500 euros. The second stage should also end at 65,000 euros net and the subsidy should drop to 3,000 euros. From September 2023, only private individuals will be able to have their electric car subsidized.
Tesla trick will probably continue to work
In all of this, however, the net list price is still the reference value. This should continue to mean the basic price without extras, which opens up some design options. This is how Tesla sells all variants of Model 3 and Model Y in Germany as the respective basic version and shows larger batteries or the performance equipment as additional options. That would no longer have been possible due to a new total price rule in the April draft, but it should continue to work now – as long as there is any environmental bonus money at all.
The volume of the funding planned from 2023, which was estimated by the Handelsblatt at 2.5 billion euros, is in the Communication from the Ministry of Economy not included. However, she explicitly explains that the environmental bonus ends when the money for it is gone. If the amount mentioned is correct, the FDP estimate that it might be issued before the end of next year is supported by another statement from the ministry: It assumes that the number of “battery-powered cars”, i.e. probably the pure electric cars, will exceed the 2 million mark in 2023. At the end of June it was around 800,000, and 2.5 billion euros would only be enough for around 555,000 more at the higher rate from 2023.
