PHEV and electric car buyers in Germany will be offered subsidies by the government, as it was announced on a press conference.
The incentives will reach 4,000 euros ($4,552) for electric models and 3,000 euros ($3414) for plug-in hybrids.
The whole incentive scheme is said to be worth about 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion), Reuters reports, and aims in boosting their practically non-existent sales. Germany is the biggest car market in Europe, with 45 million car registered, but only 50,000 of them are electric and PHEVs.
The total cost of the scheme is going to be shared between the government and the car manufacturers, with the goal to be adding 400,000 cars of this type on the roads, according to Germany’s Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
Purchase subsidies will be available for cars costing up to 60,000 euros ($68,280) in a bid to boost the most affordable models in the market.
“With this, I believe we will be able to give a boost to quickly move the number of vehicles (sales) to a considerable level,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.
The incentives program also includes a 300 million euro investment on charging stations which could start as soon as May, with the government considering additional measures to sweeten the deal for electric cars including tax incentives.
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