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| the 2015 electric e-Golf |
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and car market, will need to take drastic action if it is to embrace electrification, and the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) wants a new tax on gasoline to provide money to make this happen.
Pure electric cars cost about twice as much as the equivalent sized conventionally powered vehicles, with much less range which also varies dramatically with use and climate. The European Union, at the behest of the member states, has demanded harsh new fuel economy rules in the name of protecting the climate from what some claim is human induced warming. The next set of rules take effect this year, and much tougher ones kick in five years from now. The improvements required in five years time are so severe, just tinkering with current internal combustion engines (ICE) won’t be enough. The automotive industry must embrace a proportion of electrification if is to meet the rules and avoid bankruptcy-threatening penalties.
Germany doesn’t provide subsidies but wants one million electric cars on its roads by 2020, and this looks as if it’s going nowhere, like President Barack Obama’s target of one million in 2015 for the U.S. Recently, Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the target for 2020.
“There is a lot to do,” Merkel said in a dramatic understatement last month. “We see that further subsidies are necessary. We must speak with the German (federal) states about that.” Merkel gave no indication that any money or action would be forthcoming.
But Professor Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from CAR at the University of Duisberg-Essen has a plan. Dudenhoeffer said Germany could raise about $2.4 billion by adding just one cent to the price of gasoline and diesel for three years. This would fund 80,000 electric charging stations in 60 cities, as well as subsidizing new electric vehicle purchase and car-sharing schemes.
Read more; $2.4 Billion Subsidy Might Wake Up Germany's Feeble Electric Car Sales
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