German government, car industry to strategise on goal of 15 million EVs by 2030

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will convene car executives with ministerial leaders, energy executives and unions today to discuss how Germany can meet its target of 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030, a government spokesman said.

The chancellor is convinced the goal could be reached if carmakers produced more cheaply priced and longer-range cars, spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said at a press conference on Friday.

A ruling last week by a German constitutional court that the re-allocation of 60 billion euros (RM307bil) towards climate and industry initiatives was unconstitutional has left the government scrambling for alternative sources of funds and cast doubt over planned projects, including expanding charging infrastructure.

Still, a spokesman for the transport ministry said they were working at high speed to expand the charging network, with over 100,000 publicly available spots already built.

The coalition agreement of Germany's government stated it aimed to have "at least 15 million fully-electric passenger vehicles in 2030", but Transport Minister Volker Wissing loosened the terms last year to include both electric and hybrid cars.

The latest available data from German federal motor authority KBA showed there were 2.2 million cars with an electric motor on German roads by October this year, of which 1.3 million were fully-electric cars.