Electric car premium: Nearly two million applications since 2016

The subsidy significantly aids the ramp-up of electromobility and the electrification of fleets. Since May 1, 2023 alone, 28,608 new applications have been added. A total of 1,170,972 applications have been submitted to Bafa for pure battery electric cars. Plug-ins are still slightly behind - however, the subsidy for them expired in 2023. They account for 804,861 applications. For hydrogen electric vehicles with fuel cells, 453 applications have been received, indicating that this topic is likely to remain challenging in the passenger car segment.

Below, we have listed some interesting tables regarding the current status of applications.

Applications by type - a total of 1,976,286. Battery electric models clearly dominate here.

Pure battery electric vehicles: 1,170,972

Plug-in hybrids: 804,861

Fuel cell vehicles: 453

Applications by applicant: Private individuals and companies are almost evenly balanced. Churches and non-profit organizations, as well as freelancers, are surprisingly underrepresented.

Private person: 826,847

Freelancer: 7

Company: 979,401

Company with municipal participation: 9,889

Private company: 12

Association: 820

Registered association, non-profit investor: 6,279

Municipal enterprises: 1,221

Municipal special purpose association: 204

Church, church institution, recognized religious community: 2

Non-profit organization: 2

Foundation: 1,107

Corporation: 14,299

Registered cooperatives: 1

Sole proprietor: 19

Top 10 manufacturers: With the exception of Tesla, you see the usual picture here – domestic manufacturers ahead of the rest, followed by Tesla, Renault, and Hyundai. Audi, Opel, and Seat are rather underrepresented here.

Volkswagen: 277,813

Mercedes-Benz: 183,504

BMW: 158,444

Tesla: 152,260

Renault: 131,830

Hyundai: 114,255

Audi: 110,689

Opel: 76,752

Seat: 74,391

Kia: 73,676

Top 10 models: Here the picture changes, and Tesla’s Model 3 leads, while the VW ID.3 only comes in third. The still strong positions of Renault Zoe and BMW i3 are interesting.

Tesla Model 3: 95,410

Renault Zoe: 89,954

VW ID.3: 65,447

Tesla Model Y: 56,313

VW e-up!: 56,308

Hyundai Kona electric: 54,589

Smart ForTwo EQ: 48,924

Fiat 500e: 47,549

BMW i3: 44,150

VW ID.4: 37,216

Applications per state: It is not surprising – the most populous and financially best-off states set the tone here. Given the sheer number of inhabitants, Berlin performs comparatively weakly.

Baden-Württemberg: 297,451

Bavaria: 373,187

Berlin: 60,286

Brandenburg: 39,337

Bremen: 10,146

Hamburg: 44,024

Hesse: 180,063

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: 16,473

Lower Saxony: 183,421

North Rhine-Westphalia: 479,468

Rhineland-Palatinate: 94,010

Saarland: 22,910

Saxony: 52,137

Saxony-Anhalt: 25,326

Schleswig-Holstein: 66,650

Thuringia: 30,784

Unknown: 613

What does this mean?

The list shows that the funding is well received and how much has already been achieved: There are still vehicles in the top ten that are no longer being produced. It will be interesting to see when the funding pots will close and what will happen next.