The Netherlands has led the way in EV adoption boasting over 300,000 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids on the roads as of July of this year and its strong investment in infrastructure has meant over 50,000 public charging stations are up-and-running around the country. But the Dutch are not alone in their commitment to infrastructure development. Germany, who has announced its ambitious commitment of installing 1 million charge points in the country by 2030, committed a budget of 130 million euros (2020-2021) for propelling the development of charging infrastructure. This is supported by strong financial incentives for drivers, offering up to a 9,000 euro grant for purchasing an EV alongside the promise of no motor tax until 2030.
France is offering the most generous financial incentive in Europe to encourage ICE drivers to make the switch to electric with purchase grants reaching up to 12,000 euros. As well as conversion bonuses’ of around 5,000 euros for scrapping an ICE and purchasing an EV, and vehicle tax registration exemptions across most of the country. In the UK, the phase out of internal combustion engine vehicles has been brought forward by five years to 2030, and this shift of accelerating zero-emission mobility is expected to deliver 40.000 new jobs by 2030 and save around 5 million metric tons of CO2 from being released into the air. This translates to avoiding the CO2 release of approximately 1,080,218 vehicles generated in one year or 12,406,947,891 miles driven by the average driver.
The above are just a few examples of the commitments made by national governments to make the future of our transport systems electric, but this is not to say that mainstreaming this form of clean mobility will not take continued commitment within the industry.
