Germany wants to put €2bil into encouraging electric cars

(FILES) - Picture taken on September 15, 2015 shows a Mercedes electric drive car plugged for charging during the second press day of the 66th IAA auto show in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. AFP PHOTO / DANIEL ROLAND

BERLIN: German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel wants to commit €2bil (RM9.52bil) to encourage more people to buy electric cars, the newspaper Die Zeit reported. 

Buyers of electric cars would receive a subsidy from the government, the newspaper said, giving no further details. 

Gabriel also wants to expand charging stations and encourage federal offices to use electric cars – an initiative that will be funded under the current German budget without tax increases, he said. 

The German government aims to put one million electric cars on the roads by 2020. Among the country's carmakers, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen now produce all-electric cars; Audi, Mercedes and Porsche have plans to build one. 

Sales of electric cars totalled some 19,000 in 2014, but at the end of 2014 Germany had only 2,400 charging stations and around 100 fast-charging points. 

Calls for supporting electric cars grew at the end of last year after the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Both Gabriel and his fellow Social Democrat Environment Minster Barbara Hendricks have called for a quota for electric cars. — Reuters