M3E Overview of Sustainable Mobility: What Will Change for Companies in 2025

Next year, a number of changes will again be coming for all traffic-participating companies. The consulting firm M3E, which specializes in sustainable mobility, has summarized the most important changes: These include the update of company car taxation, special depreciation, the increase in the CO2 tax, new fleet limit increases, the GEIG, the greenhouse gas quota, and the CO2 toll.

• Company car taxation: In Germany, the private use of company cars is taxed. For combustion engines, the taxable amount is based on 1 percent of the gross vehicle price. For electric cars, a lower rate of 0.25 percent of the gross price applies as long as the gross list price does not exceed €70,000. The draft federal budget for 2025 provides for an increase of this price limit to €95,000. The change has not yet been finalized. This measure was part of the growth package negotiated by the traffic light coalition in July. However, with the premature end of the coalition and the new elections in February 2025, it is unclear whether the company car taxation update will be implemented in this form.
• Special depreciation: The federal government is planning a special depreciation for electric cars. It involves companies being able to write off 40 percent in the first year of acquisition for e-vehicles purchased from July 1, 2024. The target group is primarily commercial fleets. In the second year of purchase, the rate is to be 24 percent and then continuously decrease to six percent in the sixth year. The change has not yet been finalized.
• Increase in the CO2 tax for fuels: The CO₂ price for fuels such as petrol and diesel will increase from €45 to €55 per ton in 2025. This means an increase in the CO₂ levy of €10 per ton compared to the previous year. This increase is expected to raise the price of a liter of petrol or diesel by about €0.16.
• Increasing fleet limits for car manufacturers: According to EU guidelines, the limit for CO₂ fleet targets for passenger cars will be reduced from the current 115 g/km to 93.6 g/km starting in 2025 – this corresponds to a CO₂ reduction of 19 percent. For light commercial vehicles up to 3.5 tons, the reduction is 17 percent from 185 g/km to 154 g/km. Vehicle manufacturers that exceed the fleet limits must expect fines of €95 x the value exceeded in g/km and the number of registered vehicles.