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The story
A story about Germany’s October new-car market — where electric vehicle (EV) share hit 37% (94,086 units), surpassing the combined total of gasoline and diesel vehicles for the second month running — stirred up discussion on the overseas forum Lemmy’s c/europe. Posters expressed surprise at the sharp rebound, coming less than three years after EV subsidies were abruptly cut without warning and sales plunged. The thread ranged from comments like “Wasn’t Tesla supposed to be struggling?” to talk about actual price cuts and delivery times, debate over what makes up the remaining roughly 26% (hybrids, etc.), and complaints about charging infrastructure.
In Germany’s new-car market in October, fully electric vehicles (EVs) sold 94,086 units for a 37% share, outselling the combined total of gasoline and diesel cars for the second consecutive month. Less than three years after subsidies were abruptly cut without warning and sales collapsed, the birthplace of the automobile is switching to EVs faster than its own industry predicted.
Source: electricfuture.org / Original article here
What people said
Background and Talking Points
The “subsidy cut without warning” mentioned in the original article refers to the German government ending the EV purchase subsidy (Umweltbonus) at the end of 2023, a move that caused new-car sales to drop sharply through 2024. As the thread clarifies, this 37% figure covers pure EVs only, with the remainder made up of hybrids and PHEVs plus a small number of niche vehicles like natural-gas-powered cars. As for Tesla, its popularity is often said to be fading due to backlash against Elon Musk’s political statements, but posters pointed out that price cuts and improved delivery times have kept sales solid — highlighting a gap between public perception and actual sales figures. At the same time, persistent complaints about charging infrastructure suggest there’s still a real gap between rising adoption rates and the state of the charging environment on the ground.
*This article is a condensed summary, translated into Japanese by our editorial team, of the thread “Germany reaches a share of 37% electric vehicles in October, more than petrol and diesel cars combined” from the overseas forum Lemmy c/europe. Responsibility for the translation lies with this site.
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