Germany to promote electric cars with subsidies, tax-exemption

The German federal government adopted an incentive program on Wednesday to promote electric cars with measures including purchase subsidies and tax exemption.

According to the program, buyers of purely electric cars will receive 4,000 euros (about 4,509 U.S. dollars) and people purchasing plug-in hybrids will receive 3,000 euros.

The subsidies amounting 1.2 billion euros will be shared equally between the government and car industry and last until 2019.

Electric cars will also be exempted from motor vehicle tax for 10 years, the government said.

"Progress in electric mobility is crucial for the future of the automotive location Germany," said German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel in a statement. "The increase in demand will trigger important and necessary investment along the entire value chain of electric mobility."

The German government also decided to spend another 300 million euros on building 15,000 charging stations between 2017 and 2020 along highways and in locations including shopping centers, railway stations and airports.

"The key to the breakthrough of electric vehicles is a nationwide charging infrastructure," said German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt.

The German government aims to bring 1 million electric cars on road by 2020. Currently, however, only 50,000 electric vehicles, including less than 20,000 purely battery powered cars, are running in Germany. Endit