Electric buses and electric cars are to be produced in Egypt in the future. The Egyptian government has now reportedly reached agreements with Foton and Geely respectively.

In view of the sharp drop in electric car sales, the Chinese government is considering extending its subsidies for new energy vehicles beyond this year. This comes contrary to the government’s original plan of phasing out those subsidies.

The increased environmental bonus has now come into force with its publication in the German Federal Gazette for official announcements. Meanwhile, the ministry responsible for the allocation of the bonus – the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) – has updated its website.

The Singapore government wants to expand the public charging infrastructure from the current 1,600 to 28,000 charging points by 2030 and is planning a series of monetary incentives from next year to support the introduction of electric vehicles.

Brussels has given the green light for an increase in the EV subsidy scheme, the Environmental Bonus in Germany. According to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the European Commission today announced that it has no objections to greater financial support for electric vehicles in Germany.

Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, has signed an ordinance to electrify the city’s entire municipal vehicle fleet by 2040. New York City claims to operate the largest municipal fleet in the United States.

The UK government has announced a grant scheme for local authorities to create Britains first zero-emissions bus town. Funding will be provided for electric buses and infrastructure to the area that can provide a convincing plan.

The Dutch government intends to grant a subsidy of 4,000 euros for the purchase of privately used electric cars up to a list price of 45,000 euros from July this year, according to local media.

The new British government wants to bring forward to 2035 the ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines initially planned for 2040. Besides, the prohibition of new registrations will then also apply to hybrid vehicles.

The EU Commission has approved an increase of 300 million euros in Germany’s state aid for the purchase of electric buses and charging infrastructure under state aid law. The German aid scheme is valid until the end of 2021.

According to a local media report, Tesla has applied to the German government for subsidies for battery cell production and research in Germany. In return, Tesla could become part of one of the consortia that the Ministry of Economics wants to support.

In order to accelerate the switch to electric vehicles, London is doubling the scrapping premium for old vans with combustion engines to £7,000 (around 8,288 euros). Those who switch to an electric transporter even receive 9,500 pounds (approximately 11,248 euros) from the city.

Austria aims to decarbonise its transport sector. The coalition of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Greens want public authorities to exclusively purchase zero-emission vehicles as early as 2022 and otherwise focus on subsidies for the electrification of official fleets, taxis, rental cars, car-sharing, public transport as well as private cars.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed a bill to promote electric vehicles. The state calls for two million plug-in cars by 2035 and offers consumers rebates of up to $5,000. The ‘Light Duty Plug-in Electric Vehicle Rebate Program’ will run for ten years.

China will not make significant cuts in subsidies for electric cars this year. This was announced by Miao Wei, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology.

The European Investment Bank is providing 27.5 million euros to finance the introduction of cleaner buses in Spain. Specifically, it will support the modernisation of Grupo Ruiz’s bus fleet through the purchase of 32 electric and 141 natural gas buses for public transport.

This year the Finnish government is providing 5.5 million euros to subsidise new charging points for electric cars. The funding is to be used to create more than 5,000 new charging points at housing estates.

The South Korean government will provide a total of 950 billion won (about 627 million euros) in 2020 to subsidise electric cars and expand the network of charging stations in the country, this signifies a 60 per cent increase from 2019.

The government of India has approved the establishment of 2,636 charging stations for electric vehicles throughout the country. The charging stations will be distributed to 62 cities in 24 states and Union territories.

Several US American states have launched initiatives to support the electrification of their traffic. Massachusetts and Delaware extended their subsidy programmes, while Ohio is angling to introduce one. California extended traffic benefits to include those driving used EVs.

The French government has revised its bonus-malus CO2 system with the aim of quintupling sales of electric vehicles by 2022 compared with 2017. To this end, new modalities for the environmental bonus will be introduced and the environmental penalty will be drastically increased.

A new US American spending bill includes the retroactive extension of tax credits for home EV charger installation, electric motorcycles, and fuel-cell vehicles. Previously, the credits had been extended through 2017, and have now been extended to 2020.

At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has launched the ‘Global E-Mobility Program’ to help 17 developing countries initiate the use of electric vehicles on a large scale.

California is joining with seven other US American states to develop an action plan to put “hundreds of thousands” more emissions-free trucks and buses on roads and highways. The California Air Resources Board announced the initiative.

The European Commission has now approved funding totalling 3.2 billion euros for pan-European research and innovation projects by seven Member States in all segments of the battery value chain. Among others, Opel and BMW will benefit from the funds.

In August 2019, 6,672 electric vehicles drove on Polish roads, with a share of just 0.2%, Poland is at the bottom of the league in Central Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, or precisely because of this, the Polish government has set itself ambitious targets for e-mobility. But the new funding programme is controversial, as Aleksandra Fedorska reports.

The “Zero Emissions Roadmap 2028 2.0” for the Los Angeles area has just been presented. It outlines the way the city aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution by 25% by the 2028 Olympic Games. E-mobility plays an essential role.

The Slovak Ministry of Economy is starting a new round of subsidies for electrified vehicles in order to encourage individuals, businesses and government agencies to purchase electric vehicles. A total of 5 million euros has been earmarked for the programme.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is awarding grants for bus projects in the USA again. A total of 423 million dollars for 94 projects in 42 states – including many projects with electric buses and charging infrastructure.

The new European CO2 legislation for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles obliges the EU Commission to monitor real fuel and electrical energy consumption from next year onwards. This was pointed out by the ICCT.