Funding for the purchase of electric cars expires tomorrow

If you want to buy an electric car and receive government subsidies for it, you have to hurry: According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the funding will expire tomorrow, Sunday.

The federal government is allowing state funding for the purchase of electric cars to expire from Sunday. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced that no new applications could then be submitted for the so-called environmental bonus. However, funding that has already been promised will not be affected by the end of the funding and will be paid out.

Existing applications received up to and including December 17, 2023 will be processed in the order in which they are received and – provided the funding requirements are met – approved, the ministry explained. The government subsidies for the purchase of climate-friendly e-cars have so far been financed from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). The Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling on the budget deprived the KTF of 60 billion euros, which means it has fewer resources at its disposal.

Environmental bonus paid out for 2.1 million electric cars

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the environmental bonus program was “very successful and has significantly advanced electromobility in Germany.” Since 2016, a total of around ten billion euros have been paid out as part of the environmental bonus for around 2.1 million electric vehicles. According to the current funding guidelines, the environmental bonus should have expired next year. In their compromise on the 2024 federal budget a few days ago, the coalition leaders agreed that the end of the environmental bonus would be brought forward due to austerity constraints.

Since the beginning of 2023, the environmental bonus has been 4,500 euros with a net list price of the basic car model of 40,000 euros and 3,000 euros with a net list price of over 40,000 euros to 65,000 euros. The federal government wanted to use the funding to support its goal of putting a total of 15 million fully electric cars on the roads by 2030.

Sales slump is expected

According to experts, the effects of the funding stop could be significant. Specifically, sales of purely battery-electric cars could shrink for the first time in this country in 2024 after almost a decade of constant growth: “We are calculating 90,000 to 200,000 fewer vehicles,” said car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer to the “Handelsblatt”.