France & Germany Place EV Industry At The Centre Of Economic Recovery

France & Germany Place EV Industry At The Centre Of Economic Recovery

Following on from the recent announcement of the EU Green Recovery plan, Germany and France have announced specific stimulus plans that focus heavily on the EV industry.

France Aims To Become The Leading Producer of Clean Cars In Europe
Emanuel Macron has announced an €8 billion support package for the auto industry, focussing on three main elements: stimulating sales, enhancing competitive advantage for French companies and localising production in France. With a core focus on EV adoption, pure electric car purchase incentives will rise from €6k to €7k for private vehicles and from €3k to €5k for fleet vehicles costing up to €45k. A new purchase incentive has been launched for PHEVs - €2k for cars costing up to €50k, with a range of over 50km. To support these increased sales, tens of millions will be invested in public charging infrastructure over the next 18 months. Up to 40,000 charging stations will be installed by the end of this year with a goal of 100,000 in operation in 2021.

Germany Ringfences €50bn for Climate Change, Innovation & Digitalisation
Angela Merkel has re-committed Germany’s goal of a carbon neutral economy by 2050 this week by announcing EVs as a core part of their €130 billion stimulus package. To boost EV sales, purchase incentives will double from €3k to €6k for new cars costing less than 40k. There will also be an extension of the EV tax exemption from 2025 to 2030. Fleet vehicles will be supported to the tune of €1.2bn for buses and trucks, with €200m going towards NGO EV transport. An overall VAT reduction from 19% to 16% will benefit all car sales going forward. A significant €2.5bn will be invested in charging infrastructure, battery development and EV research and development. It is expected that EVSE at all petrol stations will form a key part of this funding.

With the OECD warning of contracting economies across all G20 nations, the UK government is under pressure to announce their plans. It may benefit from blueprints laid out by these countries to achieve economic recovery while sticking to the over-arching goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Reports have surfaced in relation to the consideration of scrappage schemes by the UK government to stimulate car sales. While Germany decided against this for ICE vehicles, France has adopted a scheme covering both EV and ICE with a higher value on clean vehicles and an expansion of income eligibility for those who can access the EV scheme.

SOURCES
https://www.ft.com/content/8e84e13b-d02f-4d90-839d-f99c3a0c1d95
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/coronavirus-number-10-says-it-will-push-for-strong-and-swift-economic-recovery-as-oecd-warns-britain-will-be-worsthit
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/03/uk-car-industry-pushes-for-scrappage-scheme-to-help-buy-new-petrol-and-diesel-vehicles
https://chargedevs.com/newswire/german-stimulus-plan-supports-evs-ices-out-fossil-vehicles/

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