Share of alternative engines in German car registrations doubles again to over 40% in 2021

More than 40 percent of all cars newly registered in Germany between January and October 2021 came with an alternative engine, the country’s federal energy agency dena said in its annual monitoring report. With 41.2 percent of all cars having an alternative propulsion system, their share doubled with respect to the same period last year, when 21.8 percent of new cars had no regular internal combustion engine. “It’s important that we continue to support this trend in order to make the government’s goal of having 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030 a reality,” dena head Andreas Kuhlmann said, adding that the target of having at least one million charging points ready by that time would be equally important. However, apart from registering more e-cars, Germany would also have to reduce the CO2 emissions of the existing vehicle fleet to reach its climate targets, meaning a greater share of low-carbon or even carbon-neutral fuels is needed as well as the continued development and rollout of new mobility concepts, Kuhlmann argued. With over 48 percent of all cars fitted with alternative engines, hybrid engines were the most widespread technology in the segment. And most cars fitted with an alternative engine were SUVs, meaning the trend towards heavy and bulky upper-class cars observed in the past years continues, dena concluded. The country’s capital Berlin was the state with the highest share, where almost 47 percent of newly registered cars came with an alternative engine, followed by car state Baden-Württemberg (45.3%), the most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia (45%) and Bavaria (42.1%).

According to business newspaper Handelsblatt, demand for the state’s premium for e-car buyers was booming again in 2021, with about 585,000 applications filed. Germany spent over three billion euros on supporting e-car sales, nearly five times more than in 2020, Handelsbatt said based on figures by BAFA, the federal office for economic affairs and export control. The premium that was augmented in mid-2020 will continue to be paid out in 2022. After that year, it will be amended to optimise the emissions reduction’s impact. Since the premium was first introduced in 2016, more than one million applications have been filed. Purchases of purely electric cars are supported with up to 9,000 euros and buyers of plug-in hybrid cars receive up to 6,750 euros in support.