Berlin, Apr 19 (IANS): Although Germany's electric vehicle (EV) market is growing steadily, the government target of 15 million electric cars on the roads by 2030 would not be reached with current policies, the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) said.
The growth in electric cars is still "linked to the minimum requirements" of manufacturers' CO2 fleet limits, Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of the BDEW Executive Board, said in a statement.
Europe's largest economy requires a "strategy that puts more fully electric vehicles on the road", Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying
According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), around 48.8 million passenger cars were registered in Germany at the beginning of 2023.
Despite increasing by 63.8 per cent year-on-year, the number of electric cars barely exceeded the one million mark.
EV registration figures in Germany have picked up noticeably since 2020.
"The most important lever for this is the European CO2 fleet limits, which were tightened significantly at the end of 2021 and in 2022," the BDEW's new electromobility monitor said.
Until the end of last year, the government had still supported the purchase of electric vehicles, including hybrids, which "drove sales of fully electric passenger cars to a record high," the BDEW said.
There are currently less than 64,000 normal charging points and around 13,000 fast charging points in operation in the country.
As with the number of EVs, there is still a long way to go to meet the government target of one million public charging points by 2030.
"For the success of electromobility, a comprehensive, demand-oriented and user-friendly charging infrastructure is of decisive importance," a spokesperson for the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) told Xinhua.
This year, total sales of electric cars, including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, are to fall 8 per cent, according to a forecast by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA).