Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272219 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 2032
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
We evaluate German purchase subsidies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) using data on new vehicle registrations in Germany during 2015-2022. We account for confounding time trends and interacting EU-level CO2 standards using neighboring countries as a control group. The program was cost-ineffective, as only 40% of BEV and 25% of PHEV registrations were subsidy-induced, and had strong distributional effects, with greater uptake in wealthier and greener counties. The implied abatement cost of 870 euro per ton of CO2 for BEVs and 2,470 euro for PHEVs suggests that subsidies to PHEVs were especially cost-ineffective.
Subjects: 
Decarbonizing road transport
electric mobility
purchase subsidies
policy effectiveness
distributional effects of climate policy
JEL: 
Q54
Q58
H23
R48
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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