All time high of EV registrations in Germany in December

An exact 3,412 newly registered electric cars mean a new record month for Germany according to our counts. PEV sales in December 2017 defied all festivities and further included 7,099 hybrid cars of which 2,876 carry a plug. 

Electrification is on the up in Germany, albeit slowly. But December 2017 was a record month as it saw 3,214 Germans buy an all-electric car, more than ever before. They continue a trend that had been running all year and the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority, registered an annual increase of 119.6 percent in EV registrations compared to EV sales in 2016.

The other segments show similar growth with 84,675 hybrid vehicles (+76.4%) registered in 2017, of which 29,436 were PHEVs, a plus of 114.2 percent.

The strength of the Germans former favourite child Diesel is in decline, as KBA saw a rather slight decrease of 13.2 percent throughout 2017.

Meanwhile, the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Controls (BAFA) had its own numbers to add since the introduction of Germany’s plug-in grant called Umweltbonus. By December, 31, 2017, BAFA had received a total of 46,897 applications, more than half of them for BEVs (27,217) with the remaining 19,664 for PHEVs. Fuel cell electric vehicles have not taken a hold and were requested by no more than 16 applicants.

In terms of manufacturers, BMW has taken a strong lead with 9,806 applications. Their plug-in offering sets the Bavarians ahead of Volkswagen and Renault, who counted 6,962 and 5,893 PEV registrations respectively.

kba.de (December), kba.de (2017), electrive.net (BAFA; all links in German)