As part of the European country’s €130 billion coronavirus stimulus package, gas stations in Germany will now have to provide charging for all the electric vehicles that come through. Moreover, Germany is also now adopting the policy where it would increase the subsidy given out to electric vehicles that cost less than €40,000 – with the increase coming out at €6000 from a previous €3000.
While the German authorities are actively paving the way for a change, electric vehicles are still relatively uncommon in the country. In accordance with what Reuters has had to say, last year, less than 2 percent of the cars sold in Germany were electric, compared to the 32 percent figure for diesel cars, and the 59.2 percent figure for petrol cars. Perhaps the reason why most consumers are not too big on the idea for change is due to the fear of not being able to recharge if the vehicle runs out of power on the road. And in a situation like this – the new law comes in –in an attempt curb anxiety and increase the convenience.
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Research though does indicate that even with the increase in mind, Germany will indeed require more chargers so as to make sure that electric cars do end up going mainstream. It has been said that all across the country, there exist 14,118 gas stations, however, for it to achieve mass market adoption, it will require around 70,000 charging stations as well as 7,000 fast chargers. The country does seem to be at a decent starting point though – as electric charging stations as of March 2020 were 27,730.
Nonetheless, for a country where some of the biggest automobile players such as VW, BMW, and Daimler have their headquarters, the law that the state is now trying to impose will indeed only result in positivity. Also interesting to note is the fact that electric car manufacturer Tesla is also in the process of establishing its very first European Giga factory in the country at a site near that to Berlin.
