Germany is implementing a 4,000 euro bonus on the purchase price of an electric vehicle. That would bring the price of a Renault Twizy down from 7,700 and 3,700. Who wouldn’t buy that? Me.
Today, the German government announced 1.2 billion euros in funding for electric vehicles, half of which will come from the federal government and the other half from the automotive sector itself. 300 million euros will be devoted to building charging stations; 100 million, to tax incentives. The rest is devoted to the rebate.
On a German car website, there was a nifty little overview of all the EVs currently on sale in Germany with their current purchase price with and without a 4,000 euro rebate. The first one was the two-seater Twizy for less than 4,000 euros. Man, was I ready to buy…
I headed straight on over to the Renault website, where I wanted to see what my new vehicle looked like. Okay, you can’t really close any windows, so in Berlin (where I’m working until October) I’m likely to have to clean out some vandalism once or twice a week if I park on the street (which I have to); essentially, the Twizy is a speedy golf cart. And there isn’t anywhere to charge around home – but I’m sure I’ll figure that out later.
The car has a range of 100 kilometers and a top speed of 80 kilometers. That’s fine for Berlin.
And then, I notice that the purchase price does not include a battery, though one can be leased. For the next six months of a fellowship at an institute, I will drive 30 kilometers to work and 30 kilometers back every day. That’s 60 kilometers a day, 300 a week, 1,200 a month.
Renault does not offer a lease to cover that much. The limit is 10,000 kilometers a year, putting me at just over 800 kilometers a month – two thirds of what I need just to get to work and back. And that lease costs 70 euros a month for one year or 60 euros a month for four years.
The specs also indicate that 6.3 kilowatt-hours of electricity will be needed for 100 kilometers. At the retail rate, that’s going to cost me around two euros. At present, I drive (gasp) a diesel and consume around 3.8 liters per 100 km for the commute. Diesel now costs just under a euro, so I am paying less than four euros per 100 kilometers – two euros more than the Twizy will cost.
I would thus save two euros per 100 km or around 24 euros for the 1,200 a month I drive. In return, I would need to spend at least 60 euros on a battery lease, producing a loss of 36 euros – and I’m still going to have to find some way to get to work a third of the time – and charge.
In short, there is no business case for electric vehicles yet. Or a convenience case.
Don’t get me wrong – I want electric mobility to work. But every few years, I look into this, and we are not there yet.
A week ago, I had the opportunity to ride in a Tesla S, and it is a fine car. It also costs nearly half as much as the apartment I am currently buying.
So I will be doing something else. The weather is getting nice here, and more than half of my commute is along a forest with no stop signs or traffic lights at all. It’s time to get on the racing bike. Until my e-bike gets here in a few weeks.
My new bicycle. E-bikes still receive absolutely no support under the German government’s new plan. Instead of supporting electric vehicles, they could give everyone the option of an EV rebate or a free electric bike. Riese und Müller60 kilometers a day, 300 a week, 1,200 a month – until September, when my fellowship ends. The other day, I cycled 45 minutes through town and back home again, and I wished the trip had been longer. Berlin seems really dry compared to rainy Freiburg. And while some people say that jogging is meditation, for me it’s just pain. But cycling – I can do that all day. Who needs an EV, much less a car?
Germany is implementing a 4,000 euro bonus on the purchase price of an electric vehicle. That would bring the price of a Renault Twizy down from 7,700 and 3,700. Who wouldn’t buy that? Me.
Update: After a meeting yesterday with the automotive sector, the rebate will be 4.000 euros for all-electric vehicles and 3.000 euros for hybrids.
Source: Renewables International. Reproduced with permission.