Government weighs tax advantage for employees driving company electric cars

To incentivise the uptake of electric vehicles, the German federal government is considering offering tax breaks to employees who use an electric company car for private purposes, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. According to the draft amendment to the law, the government would allow workers who opt for e-cars and plug-in hybrids to pay less each month in their so-called “non-cash benefit”. In the first half of 2018, just 17,000 electric cars were newly registered, constituting a market share of 0.9 percent, the article says. The government hopes that further incentivising e-car use will help it meet its previously-stated target of having one million electric cars on the roads by 2020. “The tax advantage for company cars with electric drive is another incentive for clean mobility and more e-vehicles on the road,” transport minister Andreas Scheuer said.

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the article Germany’s car-loving transport minister faces clean mobility challenge.