The federal government is accelerating the planned earlier end to the state purchase bonuses for electric cars and is ending the environmental bonus at the end of Sunday. As of December 17, 2023, no new applications for the environmental bonus can be submitted to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection announced.
Funding that has already been promised is therefore not affected by the end of the funding and will be paid out. Applications received by Bafa up to and including December 17, 2023 will be processed in the order in which they are received.
The change results from the Constitutional Court ruling on the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). The environmental bonus was originally supposed to apply until the end of 2024 and be capped from January. Since 2016, around ten billion euros have been paid out as part of the environmental bonus for around 2.1 million electric vehicles, the ministry said. The funding program is very successful and has significantly advanced electromobility.
Criticism of the decision by Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) comes from the SPD. They found the funding stop announced at short notice on Saturday “extremely unfortunate,” three deputy SPD parliamentary group leaders told the German Press Agency. “We are therefore calling on Climate Protection Minister Habeck to organize a more reliable transition here.” The parliamentary group vice-presidents Detlef Müller, Matthias Miersch and Verena Hubertz explained: “Citizens expect realistic transition periods from political decision-makers. When purchasing a new car, most people have to calculate very carefully how they can afford it and are assured of the bonus planned.”
In principle, the SPD stands by the coalition’s decision to allow the funding to expire early. “In view of the overall budgetary situation, savings must be made in a wide variety of areas.”
The Central Association of the German Motor Vehicle Industry (ZDK) also sharply criticized the abrupt end of funding. “This is an incredibly big breach of trust for tens of thousands of customers who ordered their electric vehicles on the condition that the funding would be paid,” said ZDK President Arne Joswig in a statement. “The minimum would be to let the environmental bonus run until the end of the year and at the same time, in coordination with states and municipalities, ensure that registration offices remain open until December 31, 2023 in order to be able to carry out registrations.”
On Wednesday, after long negotiations, the leaders of the traffic light agreed on how billions in holes in the federal budget for 2024 and in the climate and transformation fund should be plugged following a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. Measures such as increasing the CO₂ price and the planned removal of tax breaks for agricultural diesel are met with protest.