Electric cars off to slow start in Germany

In the first 11 months of the year, just over 1,800 e-cars were registered in Germany, said the CAR-Center Automotive Research institute, which predicted a total of 1,900 registered units for the year as a whole.

Of these only about 100 registrations were by individuals, and the rest with the manufacturers themselves or companies, the study said. Germany set a target in 2008 of having one million electric cars on its roads in 2020 and said it wanted to be a pilot market in the field.

"The pilot market risks sitting on the sidelines if it doesn't deal more quickly and decisively with electric cars," said study author Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, blaming complex and slow public support programmes. "In other countries, this is going much faster," Dudenhoeffer said, citing the examples of both France and the United States.

Source: AFP