Germany Plows $705M Into Electric Car Development

August 21, 2009

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Germany aims to put a million electric vehicles on its roadways by 2020, and the country is putting $705 million behind the effort to boost adoption of the technology.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government agreed to spend the $705 million by 2011 to accellerate development of the technology, reports Bloomberg.

Germany wants to establish “an efficient infrastructure” for electric cars and it plans to have in excess of 5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, which would account for almost 10 percent of all vehicles. The nation currently has 53.6 million cars in service, according to Wikipedia.

The effort coincides with the government’s goal to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 40 percent by 2020 and also boost the percentage of electricity from renewable sources to 30 percent from 12 percent.

Several of the major German automakers already are developing electric cars.

BMW’s “Project i” series of electric cars will exist under a different sub-brand, helping the automaker distinguish its more energy efficient offerings much in the same way it differentiates its premium fast cars under the “M” label. The MegaCity is expected to be BMW’s first offering under Project i.

Volkswagen hopes to put its first electric vehicles on the market in 2013. It wants to offer a large number of all-electric vehicles at affordable prices, and is aiming for 1.0-1.5 percent of the global all-electric vehicle market by 2020.

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Reader Comments

Regardless of what analysts are saying now, electric cars are a really powerful tool for bolstering a national economy, and creating a nation infrastructure which is independent, strong, efficient, and sustainable. I wish we saw bigger pushes for electric cars in the United States instead of programs like ‘cash for clunkers’. To learn more about the advantages of electric cars, and the way they could bring us out of a recession while saving the economy, check out the book “Two Cents Per Mile” by Nevres Cefo. You can learn more about it at http://www.twocentspermile.com or read excerpts and reviews of it at http://bit.ly/2centspermile

two cents per mile | August 31st, 2009

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