BERLIN, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Germany will miss a government target of increasing the number of electric vehicles on its streets to 1 million by 2020, the National Platform Electric Mobility (NPE) admitted in its annual report which was presented to the public in Berlin on Wednesday.
The NPE, which acts as an advisory body to the federal government in Berlin, highlighted that, based on an extrapolation of current market dynamics, the official goal of 1 million electric vehicles would only be reached in 2022 at the earliest. The previous deadline was suggested by the NPE itself back in 2010 when it was still more upbeat about the prospects for a rapid adoption of electric mobility by carmakers and customers in Germany.
In spite of the leading international role played by German companies in automotive production and innovation, the total number of purely-electric and hybrid vehicles in the country with 80 million inhabitants was only measured at 334,990 in 2018. So far this year, the Federal Motor Transport Uptick has recorded a strong uptick in registries for fully or partially battery-powered cars to 132,686 in August, but even a continuation of this trend is unlikely to suffice to achieve the 1 million target for 2020.
As a consequence, Germany still lags far behind other countries such as China, the United States and Norway, where governments have been more active with regards to promoting electric mobility.
The NPE pointed to a lack of affordable vehicles on the market and still insufficient national coverage of battery-charging infrastructure as key obstacles in the way of the country's electric vehicles development during past years.
At the same time, however, NPE president Henning Kagermann also expressed confidence in the national breakthrough of technology as the development is now underway.
According to the report, Germany is on track to become the first country in the world in which all major highways are equipped with charging points thanks to a recent initiative by the government and carmakers by 2019.
Kagermann argued that the preservation of the 1-million-vehicle target, even if it had to be delayed, sent a positive signal and predicted that there would be no need for a further shifting of goal posts in 2022. "The market dynamic with high growth rates in Germany looks very positive and showcases that we have achieved significant progress," Kagermann told press.
Commenting on the report on Wednesday, Bernhard Mattes, the president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), emphasized that his industry would help electrify mobility more swiftly in Germany in the coming years with supply-side measures.
Bernhard said that, "flanked by public investment" in the technology, the number of electric vehicle models on offer which are manufactured by domestic companies was set to rise from 33 in 2018 to 100 by 2020.
