The German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) is investing a further €20 million in the procurement of vehicles for fleets and the development of charging infrastructure as part of its electromobility funding guideline. The ministry approved a total of 86 projects, 36 of them by municipalities and 50 by companies. The BMDV is thus supporting the procurement of more than 1,000 vehicles and almost 250 charging points within the framework of this guideline.

The funding is intended to support municipal and commercial fleets such as vehicle fleets, company cars, taxis, mobility and sharing services in an accelerated switch to alternative drives. By using renewable energies, these vehicles with their high mileage achieve significant CO₂ savings.

In order to reduce emissions in traffic in a sustainable and permanent way, we need electromobility. Taxis and courier services in particular have an enormously high mileage of thousands of kilometers a year—especially in our inner cities. That’s why we’re promoting the switch from municipal and commercial fleets to electromobility with 20 million euros.

—Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport

The BMDV is pursuing an overall strategy for the market ramp-up of electromobility. This includes promoting the electrification of all modes of transport (cars, commercial vehicles, buses and rail) as well as the development of charging infrastructure, research funding and the specification of the right framework conditions.

In the summer of 2021, the goal of 1 million electric vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, was achieved and the dynamic ramp-up since mid-2020 is continuing.

In December 2021 there was a new registration high and more than 48,000 purely electrically powered cars were registered in Germany—more than 20% of new registrations and thus more than for diesel vehicles. At the end of last year there was a total of around 1.23 million electric cars on the road in Germany. The stock of all electric vehicles, including commercial vehicles and buses, amounted to around 1.3 million vehicles at the end of 2021.

The BMDV launched the electromobility funding guideline in 2015 to make the transport sector more sustainable and energy-efficient. The guideline promotes battery electric applications in three areas: municipal and commercial electromobility concepts; application-oriented research and development projects; and the procurement of battery electric vehicles for municipal and commercial vehicle fleets. So far there have been 18 calls and more than 1,000 projects that are being implemented with a funding volume of €386 million.

Funding for commercial fleets was included in the new version of the BMDV’s electromobility funding guideline in December 2020. The aim is to better map the synergies of fleet applications at the municipal level and to reach the widest possible group of users with the funding. Companies were able to achieve a funding rate of 40 to 60%, in the municipal sector a funding rate of up to 90% was possible.

Another call to promote electric vehicles and charging infrastructure will follow in 2022. The funding guideline runs until 2025.