Environmental bonus: 228,982 applications submitted in December '22 

In mid-January 2023 it is time to draw a conclusion. How has the environmental bonus/purchase premium for electric cars been received in the past year? A look at the figures for December 2022 bodes well. By 31 November 2022, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) had received 1,865,617 applications for subsidies. Since the end of November 2022, 228,982 new applications have been received. This means that applications for the purchase premium are once again higher than in the previous month. 

This was to be expected, as e-car buyers want to secure the current subsidies in time before the subsidies are cut. After all, from 2023 onwards there will be significantly less of a purchase premium for electric cars. But that should be the end of the growth in applications for the environmental bonus.  

1,865,617 applications for the environmental bonus had been submitted by the end of December 2022.

1,865,617 environmental bonus applications were submitted to the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) by the end of December 2022. In the twelfth month of the year, the applications for vehicles with alternative drive systems registered an influx of 228,982 applications. One can see that 133,857 applications for electric cars, 95,049 applications for plug-in hybrids as well as 76 funding applications for fuel cell vehicles were added.

The number of applications for the environmental bonus has thus increased significantly for all three types of drive. The number of applications for hydrogen vehicles has reached a new all-time high. Electric cars alone have registered applications totalling several months. We will see whether this picture continues in January, which we currently do not expect.