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IfW laments ‘one-sided incentive policy favoring electric vehicles’

IfW laments ‘one-sided incentive policy favoring electric vehicles’

The IfW World Economy Institute Kiel has criticized the German government‘s Covid-19 stimulus package, saying some elements of it are “harmful.” A mid-August IfW analysis titled “Incentive boom thanks to Covid-19?” found that the “one-sided, massive incentivization of all-electric vehicles” is pushing other car markets to the sidelines. Its authors suggest eliminating EUR 4.4 billion from the stimulus package approved on June 3 “without replacing the funds with other incentives.”

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Fuel Cell Incentive at 40 Percent

Fuel Cell Incentive at 40 Percent

Hyundai

Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell – less expensive than you may have thought

“Fuel cell cars are too expensive – and there’s no refueling infrastructure either.” You may hear a sentence like this one many times over. Both German-language magazine HZwei and English-language e-journal H2-international have reported regularly about new hydrogen filling stations (e.g., October 2017 issue of H2-international). So, let’s look at the price, which might be much lower than many Germans believe. If you factor in available incentives, an FCV such as the Honda Clarity Fuel Cell would cost only around EUR 42,000 (more…)

A Clean, Quiet and Comfortable Fuel Cell Car

A Clean, Quiet and Comfortable Fuel Cell Car

hyundai

H2 refueling at the Berlin filling station

Hyundai has been on the market with its mass-produced ix35 fuel cell car since 2013. Last year, 250 units were shipped to Europe, with 120 sold or leased to German businesses alone. And this year, Linde established BeeZero, which ordered as many as 50 of them for its vehicle-sharing service in Munich. Even though the fuel cell version won’t be coming to every Hyundai dealership within the next months, H2-international put it to the test for nine days (more…)

German Government Launches FC Subsidy Program

German Government Launches FC Subsidy Program

fc-heating

Financial support elates consumers, © SOLIDpower

On Aug. 1, 2016, the heating industry got the certainty they wanted with regard to the future policy framework for state-of-the-art fuel cell heating systems: The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) announced two new subsidy programs, one providing an investment grant for fuel cell heating systems and one for optimizing heating technology by replacing old pumps. Both financial measures are part of the Incentive Program Energy Efficiency (APEE) (more…)

Eco-Bonus Not (Yet) Appealing

Eco-Bonus Not (Yet) Appealing

electric-carCritics of the economic incentive for electric cars have had their I-told-you-so moment for now: The “eco-bonus” has been attracting little interest so far. Within two months (from September 5th, 2016), the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Export Control received a mere 3,027 applications. Registration figures, however, paint a slightly more optimistic picture of the market (more…)