Far from German Chancellor Angela Merkel's one million plug-in vehicle target by the end of this year - subsequently pushed back to 2022 - latest data from the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt suggests Germany's sluggish pure electric market is very slowly coming alive.
At the beging of this year 83,175 pure BEV (Battery Electrif Vehicles) were registered on German roads. With just over 25,000 newly registered this year up to the end of May the 100,000 barrier has likely been surpassed; taking into account vehicle exports and scrappage rates.
The total number of plug-in vehicles, including PHEVs stood at 150,172 at the start of the year and with just over 13,000 PHEVs registered up to the end of May this year, the number of plug-in vehicles in Germany will soon surpass 200,000 units. Norway remains far ahead As of March 31, according to official OFV data there were 214,250 zero emission vehicles registered on the road in Norway and 98,286 PHEVs making a combined plug-in total of 312,536 units. This equated to 11.5 per cent of all vehicles on Norway's roads while in Germany the total as at January 1 2019 still stood at less than half of one per cent.