Brussels attempts to encourage European drivers to buy electric cars has hit the buffers in a major embarrassment for EU policy makers, new sales figures reveal.
As part of its mission to cut CO2 emissions, the EU is pushing to ban petrol and diesel vehicles by the middle of the next decade.
EU bureaucrats are hoping to increase sales of electric vehicles from just over 8 million presently to 40 million by 2030
To help meet these targets, millions of tax payers money is being invested into schemes to help encourage the take up of electric cars (EVs) across the European Union.
In one example, just over €50 million has been awarded to the Maltese government to help provide residents with more than 5,000 grants to buy electric cars and pedelecs.
Additionally almost all EU countries are offering subsidies to car drivers to go electric.
Some of the incentives include tax breaks on registration, vehicle tax reductions for private car owners and company cars, as well as other various purchase incentives.
In Romania the government offers as much as €11,500 to people buying an electric vehicle.
However, European drivers appear les than convinced that electric cars are the way forward.
New data reveals that electric car sales plummeted across the bloc last month as demand significantly dried up.
Sales of battery-powered cars dropped by 11.3 percent overall, as demand in Germany plunged by 28.9 percent, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA).
Additionally, only 13 percent of new registrations were electric, down from 13.9 percent in March last year and down from 14.6 percent for all of 2023.
A major stumbling block to buying an electric car is its price tag, which can be several thousand euros more than a conventional vehicle.
Julia Poliscanova, an analyst at campaign group Transport and Environment, told The Guardian: “What we have learned is that it’s not enough just to incentivise electric vehicle purchase and ownership.
“You also have to disincentivise the purchase of conventional cars at the same time.”
The EU’s move to cleaner cars is part of its promise to cut planet-heating pollution 65 percent from 1990 levels by the end of the decade, and hit net zero by 2045.
Tyler Mitchell