Zero Emissions on New Cars from 2030 in Germany

Published Date: 17th Jun 2016

The German Deputy Economy Rainer Baake thinks that it’s about time that Germany gets serious about reducing the emissions from the country’s transportation. They’re targeting to reduce the carbon footprint from transportation by up to 95% going into 2050. That will mean the registrations of new petrol and diesel cars should cease to exist by the next 15 years, given that modern cars have a typical lifespan of around 10-15 years.

Baake told the Tagesspiegel newspaper’s climate forum in Berlin “Fact is, there’s been no reduction at all in CO2 emissions by transport since 1990” he goes on to say “We don’t have any answers to cut truck emissions right now but we do have answers for cars.”

The current growth of electric vehicles has been slow with around 25,000 vehicles registered on German roads, alongside 14.5 million diesel vehicles churning out the CO2. The ongoing emissions scandal between various manufacturers has proven the inconsistencies between testing in a laboratory on a rolling road and the real world.

Like the UK government have, previously announced incentives are coming into place to aid the electric and hybrid market. Purchasing any new all electric vehicle, will see you save £3150 and £2380 off the price of a new hybrid electric vehicle.

The slow growth is mainly down to Germany being a nation of petrol heads, with 30 million petrol cars registered, the derestricted speed sections of the Autobahn and the notoriously challenging 12.9 mile Nordscheilfe race track that anyone with a driving licence can pay to drive around.

Only 134,000 Hybrid vehicles have been registered, this figure is likely to improve with the new Government based support.

Germany has some of the biggest motor manufacturers in the world and just this week one of the biggest, Volkswagen group has announced that it will add 30 new electric plug-in models by 2025 as part of its new global strategy.

Taking everything into consideration Germany has a mountain to climb and by giving supporting grants on the zero and low emission vehicles of the future, they’re taking every step possible to reach the 2050 goal.