Thursday, June 3, 2021

E-Car Chatter

 Green Party politician Cem Özdemir did an interview with Zeit, and talked over his ambitions of being the future Minister of Transportation (if the Greens win big in the September election).  Focus did a detailed report over his commentary.

He wants Germans hyped up and enthusiastic about buying E-cars.  So the national goal of 15-million E-cars on the road by 2030 (currently, at the end of 2020, there were around 700,500 cars registered....roughly half were plug-in hybrids and the other half pure batter-cars).  If you did a trend line, I think the best you could hope for at this rate is around 6-million....NOT the 15-million for the agenda idea.

I would also offer this analysis....having looked myself at getting solar panels, the charger, and the Audi E-Tron.  It only makes sense if you have two cars, and one remains the gas/diesel vehicle, and the second one is the E-car.  It also only makes sense if you put a minimum of a dozen (probably it should be two dozen) panels on the roof, and charge your car off your own personal grid.  But if you add up the cost factor (the Audi E-Tron is not cheap), and the amount of charging time.....this whole discussion is silly.  

So it appears that Özdemir sees the same problems and he wants to go at the issue in a different way.

His suggestion from this interview?  He wants to avoid government credits.  Instead, he wants you (probably starting in 2022) to pay some type of premium on gas/diesel cars (avoiding the discussion of how much) and this premium would funnel its way to the lucky folks who bought the E-cars. You'd still get a 'gift' of cash from the government....but it'd be the gas/diesel car owners paying for your 'gift'.

I sat and pondered over this tax and 'gift' strategy.  It is unfair in several ways.  Even if you added a special 500 Euro tax on a 30,000 Euro new Mercedes car....I'm not sure that it'd really achieve that much....people would just pay it and talk negativity over the Green Party.

How much of a 'gift' would I need to buy a 69,000 Audi E-Tron (figure $84k US)?  Oh, I would NEED a good 15,000 Euro 'gift'.  For some reason, unless you really went cheap for a Chinese-made E-car in the 18,000 Euro range.....this discussion would make no sense, and the premium (tax) chatter is just something of a joke. Trying to entice me with a lousy 750 Euro won't work (to buy an E-car).  

Looking at this election (September) and the coalition talks.....I'd be shaking my head over the Green Party being a plus-up situation for the next four years. 

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