According to the document, due to be discussed at a meeting of high-level government and car-company officials on Monday evening, grants for plug-in hybrids will rise from €3,000 (RM13,858) to €4,500 (RM20,787). For vehicles priced over €40,000 (RM185,000), the grants will rise to €5,000 (RM23,000).
The government wants to have 10 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030, part of an offensive designed to turn round the German car industry’s perceived laggard status in e-mobility compared to its rivals in the United States and China.
The paper came to light on the day that Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech at Volkswagen’s Zwickau factory, where the German watched the carmaker start mass production of its ID.3 electric car, a vehicle costing around €30,000 (RM139,000).
Employees connecting a lithium-ion battery pack to an electric motor on the ID.3 electric car assembly line at the automaker's factory in Zwickau on Monday, - Bloomberg
“We can now say that Zwickau is a pillar of today’s German auto industry and of its future,” Merkel said at the launch. “Our task as politicians is to create a framework where new technological innovations can take hold.”
Merkel said the government would invest €3.5 billion (RM16bil) to 2035 in building charging stations for electric cars.
On Sunday, she had said Germany needed 1 million charging stations by 2030 and urged carmakers and utility companies to play their part in helping to build the necessary infrastructure.
As part of an auto industry push, BMW plans to build 4,000 electric car charging stations, a source familiar with the discussions said on Monday.
In September, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Europe’s carmakers warned governments that the EU rules could be disastrous for profits and jobs because mainstream customers were not buying electric vehicles.
German carmakers are accelerating plans to launch electric vehicles, under pressure from a European Union mandate to deliver a 37.5% cut in carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2030, on top of a 40% cut in emissions between 2007 and 2021.
