About 25 percent of the state subsidies for electric cars will be rejected, as the federal government announces on request of the FDP Bundestag faction.
Up to 9,000 euros will be subsidised in the course of the environmental bonus, or innovation premium, which has been in existence since 2016, for the purchase of a new vehicle with electric drive. However, every fourth application for state support is not approved, although the Bundestag did not mention the reasons for this in its announcement. Too bad, transparency looks different!
For FDP transport politician Bernd Reuther an absolute absurdity: "The rejections of applications for subsidies for electric cars are particularly high. Therefore the Federal Government must get to the bottom of the causes. It must not shy away from addressing structural problems and making adjustments.
As a result of the Corona crisis, the Federal Government has increased the environmental bonus, the increase over the previous year's figure being a whopping 78.6 percent. At times, the state and car manufacturers had shared the costs of the bonus, but now the state has doubled its own share in order to provide economic support for the ailing car industry. This support is to continue until the end of 2021 for both electric cars and hybrid vehicles. Environmentalists have sharply criticized the measure, however, because plug-in hybrids are also being promoted, and because they theoretically do not need to use the electric drive system installed in them. The proportion of plug-in hybrids supported by the state in the form of an innovation premium is just under 37 percent.
Why does the government leave us in the dark as to the reasons for such cancellations as described above? Such secrecy only generates more mistrust in the obscure machinations of the car industry and rather discourages the consumer from applying for the premium.