You are right. This is supremely frustrating for me as a German living in Germany interested in Tesla (and all EV). The auto-lobby is incredibly powerful and well connected here. These types of regulatory sabotages are driven by the legacy ICE industry. They sit on the relevant “industry associations” in Berlin and define policy...
I sat on the technical committee of the German solar industry association as a representative of my then employer - we basically defined technical policy and more importantly provided language to the ministry of environment or industry........same happens with Auto.....and this is exactly why these sort of interpretations of E.U. regulations become law in davor if the legacy ICE industry.
....anecdotally I do think that the kind of lobbying we did at the Solar association was good for mankind: Germany has/had the most prolific installation of grid-connected solar PV in the world.
I believe Germany is not different in terms of lobby organizations versus other countries it just happened that we have a large Auto industry and the lobby industry around it has been growing accordingly. If you have high profits we all should not wonder that the efforts to protect them are high as well.
Given that I was not surprised that the BEV incentives for the base model S has been cancelled although Tesla did offer the base model. That discourse went in front of a court even. This is now not of importance any more as the small S is not longer offered.
Having a 3 ordered I was curious what will happen to the €4k incentive the German government gives for Buyers of BEVs under the purchase price below €60k (including VAT). On paper and per law the 3 clearly qualifies but I did and still do assume lobby groups will torpedo it for Tesla.
Now since a few days it has been officially approved and lets hope it does stay. €4k makes a difference for many buyers and in my opinion it should be increased. Germany has still an issue with emissions and Germany has absolutely no issue with budgets.
Instead the program ends end of June and given that Tesla is the one that will profit from it most I expect that lobby groups will try to end that incentive or lets say make sure its not extended.
If I remember correctly the budget they put into place was €600 million and only a fraction has been called as automakers just did not deliver a reasonable BEV below €60k. The argumentation for the €60k ceiling was that people who pay more for a car do not care about 4k. I don't believe that is true.
Its almost like you say for a BEV above €60k the reduced emissions do not matter because this are rich people.
Lets hope some sane forces come together in Germany and make sure the program is extended beyond June 30th.
) ability to type the queen's English better than I. So much so, I feel the pressure to fit my language to the norm here. You will all have a lot to answer for when I start calling cars "autos" back here in Blighty! Tires not tyres - the list goes on...
Vincent @vincent13031925
