The German government announced a €1 billion ($1.13 billion) incentive scheme to subsidize the sale of electric cars and boost the number of recharging stations in the country.
Of the 1 billion euros pledged, 600 million euros will be for consumer rebates. Berlin would also spend €300m on charging infrastructure over the next three years, including on building 15,000 new stations, and 100 million euros to buy electric vehicles for the government.
Under the program unveiled on Wednesday, customers would be given a subsidy of €4,000 to buy an electric vehicle and €3,000 for a plug-in hybrid.
The government and car makers will share the cost of the rebates, which are only available on cars costing less than 60,000 euros. The rebate program begins in May.
Sigmar Gabriel, economics minister, said the program was designed to boost the number of electric cars on German roads from 50,000 currently to more than 500,000, although he did not specify a date. Germany previously announced a goal of 1 million electric cars driving German roads by 2020
