Germany May Subsidize Electric Car Sales

The German government is reportedly planning to allocate billions of euros to subsidize purchases of electric cars.

German newspaper Bild reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet this month plans to make electric cars exempt from taxes usually placed on motor vehicles for ten years.

The newspaper reported that subsidies could be worth as much as 3.8 billion euros ($5.4 billion at current exchange rates) over a period between 2012 and 2014 – a scale industrial analysts expect would create 30,000 new jobs.

The government also plans to purchase thousands of electric cars for its ministries.

Eager to reduce the dependency on imported oil and cut carbon dioxide emissions from road traffic, the German government said it wants to have 1 million electric cars cruise its highways by 2020.

[source: Auto News – registration required]