According to the new government’s coalition agreement announced on Wednesday, Germany aims to have at least 15 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030 to transition to climate neutrality.
The Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberal Democrats (FDP), who will form the next government in Europe’s largest economy, also plan to increase rail freight transport by 25% by the end of 2010, the agreement said.
“The European Commission’s proposal suggests that by 2035 only CO2-neutral vehicles will be registered in the transport sector in Europe, so the impact on Germany will be felt sooner,” he said.
“We are working to move away from the traditional target vehicle system and only allow new registrations of verified e-fuel fueled vehicles.”
The Greens previously called for a ban on the production of fossil fuel-fired cars by 2030 and a halt to the use of e-fuels for industry, transportation, ships and airplanes.
However, neither the SPD nor the FDP was behind the ban, and the FDP supported maintaining investment in electronic fuels, particularly for passenger cars.
Considering the lack of charging infrastructure as one of the major obstacles to expanding electric vehicle penetration, the coalition will maintain Germany’s current target of 1 million charging stations by 2030.
It will make funding for infrastructure expansion more effective and efficient, and develop accessible stations themselves where no “competitive solution” can be found.
But the government will ultimately depend on private companies to finance the construction, the agreement said.
“We will accelerate and optimize the ongoing construction of the charging infrastructure and lift the bureaucracy,” he added.
(Report by Emma Thomasson, Kirsti Knolle, Christoph Steitz, Victoria Waldersee, edited by Maria Sheahan)