The German goal of one million electric cars in 2020 going down the drain

Out of about 43 million passenger cars currently registered in Germany, not more than 7,000 are electrically driven. With 3,000 electric cars sold this year, the country is less than 0.2% of the way to achieving the government target of one million vehicle sales by 2020.

According to a study by research institute ISI, the success of electric cars is hugely dependent on energy prices:

Researchers argue that the best scenario for electric cars is for the price of batteries and energy to decrease, while diesel and petrol gets more expensive.

But if energy prices and battery costs do not fall the study believes Germany will be a long way short of its target, with consumers buying no more than 200,000 electric cars, author Martin Wietschel said.

But even the German government's department for promoting electric vehicles understands that the one million goal is impossible to reach without massive subsidies:

Henning Kagermann, head of a government department which looks at electric vehicles within the Ministry of the Environment, told the Süddeutsche newspaper that carmakers may need help from the state to realize the electric car dream, even though the German car industry is making multi-billion euro profits.

And it is not going to be cheap for the German taxpayers. Already now their contribution is huge:

By 2015, the German government will have spent about 700 million euros ($902 million) on promoting so-called e-mobility, which includes auto industry subsidies as well as support for electric transportation projects at community level. In addition, tax reductions for e-cars are planned.
Germany's neighbor France, as well as a number of other European countries mostly in Scandinavia, are trying to boost sales with direct subsidies for e-car purchases.
"This policy has failed so far to increase e-car sales," said Stefan Bratzel from the Center for Automotive Management, adding that the strategy was highly questionable in view of the states' huge public deficits.

Another European "success story": Eight Italians bought an electric car in February

Europeans give thumbs down to these.

In spite of all the environmental hype and subsidies, European car buyers continue to give the thumbs down to electric cars and hybrids. These are the latest sales figures from February:

• 8 Italians (out of a population of 60 million) bought an electric car in February.
• 0 Not one electric car was sold in Greece 
• 505 electric cars were sold in Germany (population 82 million)
• 648 electric cars were bought in France (population 65,6 million)

The market share for electric cars and hybrids in western Europe is a whopping 0,25%!

With this kind of sales, the German government's goal of having one million will of course never be reached. German car manufacturers are now crying for more subsidies:

“To support the development of alternative engines, we need positive conditions,” Zetsche, who is also the head of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), told business daily Handelsblatt. “At the same time it’s necessary to build the appropriate infrastructure.”Establishing new technology is unavoidably expensive, a cycle “we can only break if Europe supports the purchase of electric autos for a limited time,” he told the paper, adding that unified rules for the region would be ideal. 

Another green energy failure: FBI investigating company which was supposed to install hundreds of charging stations for electric cars in 20 U.S. areas

The handful of electric car owners in Chicago will have to wait for their "filling stations".

There seems to be no end to the failures in the "green" energy business. The latest greenie flagship project to fail is the "rollout" of hundreds of chargaing stations for electric cars in Chicago and 19 other U.S. areas. 

In February 2011 there were enthusiastic media reports about a bright new future for the miniscule number of electric car owners in Chicago and 19 other U.S. regions:


Chicagoans soon will be able to juice up their electric cars at charging stations at Willis Tower, five local tollway oases, O’Hare and Midway airports and at select I-GO, Zipcar, grocery store and shopping mall parking lots.
That futuristic scenario will become reality later this year, as electric cars reach dealerships and as San Diego, Calif.-based company 350Green installs 280 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the region.=

The rollout is funded by $1 million in federal stimulus money, plus $1 million from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. 350Green invested $6.9 million to cover the upfront costs.

To years later, not one of the charging stations is functioning, and the FBI is investigating the 350 Green project. The FBI declined to comment, but it seems clear that the $1 million in federal stimulus money, plus $1 million from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity have gone down the drain - and God knows how many millions of public money have been lost on the other 19 similar projects elsewhere: 

 Several hundred charging stations were supposed to have been installed by 350Green before the end of 2011, but work stopped some time ago, the company said. Projects by the company in 19 other markets also have been halted. -

Two Chicago-area contractors working on the project, and others with direct knowledge of the situation, told the Tribune the FBI has been examining the 350Green project. The status of the investigation isn't clear. The FBI declined to comment.

Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act show that 350Green submitted copies of checks to the city in order to receive state and federal grant money.

The checks show contractors were paid. But three contractors contacted by the Tribune said they hadn't received those checks and had been paid only a portion of what they were owed overall. In the hope of getting reimbursed, some have filed liens against retailers that agreed to host charging stations.