Germany had set a goal of having one million electric vehicles on its roads by the end of 2020. The goal will be reached with a small lag of six months: in July, the magic 1 million number will have been reached.
An announcement to that effect was made to the daily Tagesspiegel by the German Federal Minister of Economic Affairs. Peter Altmaier attributed increased demand in part to subsidy programs.
“We will reach our target of 1 million electric cars by 2020, which everyone thought was unattainable, this July, just six months late,” the minister said.
“More bonuses have been taken up in the first half of 2021 than in the whole of last year,” he added, noting that the subsidies awarded amounted to 1.25 billion Euros. Stimulus money increased the total bonuses to 9,000 Euros for electric models and 6,750 Euros for plug-in hybrids costing less than 40,000 Euros. Vehicle tax exemptions, local incentives, free parking, access to dedicated lanes and subsidized charging stations are among the other measures that have boosted sales. The increased federal measures will be extended beyond 2021, but gradually reduced in two stages until 2025 in Germany.
At that point, it will be interesting to see if the pace of sales will continue to grow.
If we compare Germany's situation with Canada's, there were 213,000 electric vehicles on the road in Canada as of March 31. Quebec has the most with 102,556 as of April 30, 2021. Ontario and British Columbia follow with 45,000 and 38,000 registered electric vehicles respectively (as of May 31).