e-mobility
Wissing: Don’t badmouth hybrid vehicles
FDP Transport Minister Volker Wissing is in favor of hybrid cars. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Significantly more e-cars are said to be on German roads. But can these only be purely battery-powered cars? The new minister wants a broader approach – and is receiving criticism for it.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing is also focusing on hybrid vehicles with a combined fuel and electric drive when expanding electromobility in Germany.
Every contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions in individual traffic is very welcome, said the FDP politician at an event organized by “Tagesspiegel”, “Die Zeit”, “Handelsblatt” and “Wirtschaftswoche” on Monday. He doesn’t think it’s good to talk bad about bridging technologies like hybrids, “which help us to make the transition”. The environmental organization Greenpeace reacted with criticism. The climate targets could only be met with fewer and exclusively fully electric cars.
Wissing said there shouldn’t be an either/or. “Especially when it comes to individual mobility, we need a variety of options.” He considers hybrids to be “a very important contribution to facilitating a switch from fossil combustion engines to electric motors”. With these vehicles, it is important to drive electrically wherever possible and to charge as often as possible. This can now also be recorded and evaluated. It can be seen that the e-range is increasing.
Greenpeace traffic expert Tobias Austrup told the German Press Agency: “Plug-in hybrids do not save the climate, but at most delay the necessary restructuring of the German auto industry. Taxpayers’ money for climate cheats, who mainly ruin the climate as diesel and petrol engines, should be canceled as soon as possible.”
Support for hybrids extended
The declared goal of the SPD, FDP and Greens is “at least 15 million fully electric cars by 2030”, as stated in the coalition agreement. The federal government has also announced a realignment of the purchase premiums from 2023. In the future, only e-cars that “have a proven positive climate protection effect” are to be funded. This is to be determined by the proportion of electric driving and the minimum range – a larger electric distance of 80 kilometers is specifically mentioned.
The current grants were recently extended again until the end of 2022. This year, too, there is an “innovation premium” of up to 9,000 euros for purely electric cars and up to 6,750 euros for hybrids that can be charged with a plug (plug-in). According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, there were 309,000 pure electric cars at the beginning of last year, plus 280,000 plug-in hybrids. However, new registrations increased sharply in 2021, also thanks to increased purchase premiums.
Wissing emphasized that the public charging station network for e-cars should be significantly expanded. It makes sense to include unmanaged parking spaces in addition to managed rest areas on motorways. When it comes to comprehensive applications of computer-controlled autonomous driving, Germany should not only be “somehow involved”, but number one.
The minister reiterated that gaps in mobile phone reception and the supply of high-speed internet must be eliminated. The ministry intends to present a draft for a “gigabit strategy” in the first quarter.