BEM criticizes planned GHG regulations and recommends revision

The Federal Association of eMobility sharply criticized the draft of a second regulation amending the regulation on specifying further provisions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in fuels, which is scheduled for submission to the Federal Cabinet this Wednesday, and demanded its rejection and re-drafting. Furthermore, the special association complained that it was once again not involved in the association hearing.

In detail, they explicitly welcome the following changes:

• § 5 Paragraph 5: "To calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of electrical power according to Paragraph 3, starting from the obligation year 2024, the value of the average greenhouse gas emissions per energy unit of electricity from the respective renewable energy in Germany is used, if in the case of § 6 1. exclusively electricity from renewable energies in the form of wind or sun (§ 2 Paragraph 5 Number 1 or 2) is used and the electricity is not drawn from the grid in the sense of § 3 Number 35 of the Renewable Energy Act, but is demonstrably sourced directly from a power generation facility behind the same grid connection point." [Note: Limiting renewable energies to wind and solar energy here is inappropriate. At least energy from hydropower should also be considered.]
• §6 a) bb) "The responsible authority according to § 20 Paragraph 1 can announce in the Federal Gazette which additional information should be attached to the records to prove that it is a publicly accessible charging point in the sense of § 2 Number 5 of the Charging Station Ordinance."
• §6 b) Paragraph 3 "The crediting of electricity drawn from a publicly accessible charging point towards fulfilling the obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is only possible if the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post, and Railways has published the registered charging point or the third party has given the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post, and Railways permission for publication."

Additionally, the association welcomes the clarification of the greenhouse gas quotas for public charging points, which have been reported as such to the Federal Network Agency and have not opposed a publication, as well as the regulation that private charging points are not eligible since they are already accounted for under §7.

The BEM experts see the following positions as critical and recommend a corresponding revision:

The draft refers to §7 under §8 with the following wording: "extracted for use in pure battery electric vehicles during the respective obligation year by November 15 of the respective obligation year." This is justified as follows: "Since estimated values are used for the electricity quantities in the cases of § 7 for pure electric vehicles, a notification to the Federal Environment Agency can be made during the year. A deadline until the end of February 28 of the following year, as in the cases of § 6 where it concerns precisely measured electricity quantities at publicly accessible charging points, is therefore not required. This also favors and accelerates processing at the Federal Environment Agency." Furthermore, it states: "The draft envisages adjustments of the already legally regulated greenhouse gas reduction quota. Notification obligations are not changed."

The association sketches that shifting the submission deadline to November 15 of the respective obligation year would mean that all vehicles registered after November 15 up to December 31 of the respective obligation year cannot be captured and also have no possibility to submit, as the obligation year corresponds to a calendar year. Last year, about 160,000 eVehicles would have been disadvantaged by this. This corresponds to approximately 30% of new registrations. The purchaser (future holder of the vehicle) often has no influence on the date of registration due to the still difficult delivery situations. A part of the vehicle owners would be discriminated against here, complains the association.

Extend the submission window

Furthermore, they see no relief in processing times. Rather, they explicitly advise extending the submission window and suggest June 30 of the following year to the obligation year. Alternatively, a deadline until June 30 of the respective obligation year, provided the vehicle is already in possession by January 1 and the registration certificates are available. In the case of a new purchase or new registration, no later than 6 months after initial registration.

Additionally, the draft explicitly mentions on page 8 that the submitted draft contains no changes to notification obligations. This statement is incorrect because shifting the submission deadline from February 28 of the following year to November 15 of the respective obligation year represents a relevant change in the notification obligation.