Germany plans stricter requirements for plug-in hybrid car subsidies

The German government is to require plug-in hybrid cars to have longer ranges while being driven in electric mode in order to qualify for price subsidies.
Hybrid cars combine an electric drive with a combustion engine. Up until now they have been required to either meet a CO2 criterion or have a minimum range. From October 2022, the CO2 criterion is to be abolished and the requirement of a minimum purely electric range of 60 kilometres will apply. From January 2024 eligibility for funding will require an increased range of 80 kilometres, according to draft funding guidelines.
The significantly higher state e-car purchase premium is to be extended until the end of 2025. In the first half of 2021 alone more than 258,000 vehicles were subsidized through the innovation premium, with some 1.32 billion euros (1.55 billion dollars) paid out.
Plug-in hybrids account for slightly less than half of the vehicles subsidized with the e-car premium. Since the start of the subsidy, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control has recorded 356,510 applications for this type of vehicle - which corresponds to a share of just under 45 per cent.
The stricter rules were welcomed by the German motoring organization, the ADAC, while Green transport specialist Oliver Krischer said the adjustment was important, but came four years too late. "In the meantime, millions of euros of taxpayers' money have been senselessly thrown out of the window and the change to purely electric cars has been slowed down."