Electric taxis: Incentives in Munich per vehicle instead of per kilometers

The Climate and Environmental Protection Committee of the Munich City Council decided in its meeting on July 18, 2023, to present a proposal to the City Council for its meeting on July 26, 2023, regarding a restructuring of the taxi subsidy program. They advocated for a new subsidy guideline, which is to take effect on January 1, 2024. It stipulates that new electric taxis will be "investively" subsidized with 10,000 euros each in 2024 and 2025, whereas the current subsidy guideline stipulates a grant of 20 cents per occupied kilometer for each electric taxi.

The Department for Climate and Environmental Protection is to apply for two million euros annually from the climate budget for the next two years to support the subsidy. Additionally, the department is requested to provide a "climate speed bonus for first movers" amounting to ten percent of the subsidy amount as part of the revision of the e-taxi subsidy. This bonus, and thereby a subsidy amount of 11,000 euros, is to apply to the first 100 vehicles. This resolution, which can be read in the Council's information system—unlike the draft of the new subsidy guideline—states that the numerous small taxi companies in the city will particularly benefit from it.

The committee also requests the mobility department to legally order the temporary establishment of a parking space at the fast-charging location Ganghoferstraße/Georg-Freundhofer-Platz for the taxi industry. How long the temporary period will last has not yet been announced. The department should encourage other property owners to install publicly accessible fast charging stations on their private property.

The new resolution is based on a round table convened in the spring of 2023 because the previous e-taxi subsidy had not quite "taken off". While multi-car entrepreneurs who think economically considered the subsidy based on passenger kilometers to be quite attractive, it was harder for simpler entrepreneurs to understand compared to a direct vehicle subsidy at the time of purchase.

The new Munich proposals resemble the current Hamburg subsidy for electrically powered future taxis in some points, with a share of barrier-free models being further subsidized. Hamburg also started with high subsidy amounts, which were then reduced from program to program to particularly strengthen early adopters and thus ramp up the program. One possibility of the new Passenger Transport Act is used exclusively by Hamburg so far: There, the issuance of new taxi licenses is soon to be tied to electric drives, of which there is as yet no mention in Munich, nor of any special promotion for electrically powered inclusion taxis.