The South Korean capital Seoul is planning to successively ban the majority of diesel vehicles from the public sector and local transport fleets over the next five years. Both electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will replace diesel vehicles.

The government of British Columbia, Canada, announced new regulations to ensure that all new vehicles sold in the province will have to be fully-electric by 2040. The regulation will be phased in starting in 2025.

South Korea has extended the electric vehicle subsidies until 2025 as they increased the budget. The support scheme, which would have expired in 2022, also include buying premiums for buses and trucks with battery-electric and hybrid drives.

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced an extensive investment program for e-mobility. The ‘EV Make Ready’ initiative includes the construction of 50,000 AC and 1,500 DC charging stations in the US state by 2025.

Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden has set out ambitious plans to invest two trillion dollars in climate protection if he wins the US election. The focus is on renewable energies and subsequently e-mobility.

In Croatia, the online application procedure for the new call for funding for electric and hybrid vehicles had to be cancelled after only two minutes because so many applications were received from private individuals that the 2020 budget for the funding programme of €2.9M was exhausted.

The Italian government is launching a series of measures to tackle the pandemic economic crisis, including a temporary increase in subsidies for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Today the European Commission has adopted the EU Strategy for Energy System Integration and Hydrogen. The former tackles charging infrastructure and grids, while the H2 Strategy focusses on long-haul and heavy-duty vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure.

In Germany, the Innovation Premium that spells out the doubling of the federal share of the Environmental Bonus for electric vehicles has come into force. The amended funding guidelines for the Environmental Bonus were published in the Federal Gazette, thus making it official.

The Polish Ministry of Climate Change announced a few weeks ago that it intends to promote the purchase of electric buses with two programmes with a total volume of 90 million euros. Both support programmes are to make it easier for municipalities and districts to purchase electric buses for passenger transport.

Another £900,000 were committed by Transport Scotland towards the eBike Grant Fund for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Round four of the grant programme is now available to assist the adoption of eBikes, eTrikes and electric cargo bikes in Scotland.

The Austrian government is increasing purchase premiums and subsidies for charging infrastructure for zero-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles from 1 July. This includes zero-emission and plug-in hybrid cars, zero-emission heavy and light commercial vehicles, zero-emission buses, and electric two-wheelers – including e-motorbikes, mopeds, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes. 

California now requires manufacturers to sell a gradually increasing proportion of electric trucks, vans and pickup trucks from 2024 onwards until 2035. By the year 2045, every new commercial vehicle sold in the US state should have zero-emission propulsion.

The UK government has awarded £73.5 million in funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre. This includes ten projects in the automotive sector to develop technologies to reduce CO2 emissions. A significant proportion of the money is being spent on furthering electric vehicle production and technology.

The Chinese government has now made the final decision to extend its quotas for New Energy Vehicles (NEV) beyond 2020. This includes electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

In the UK, special license plates for zero-emission vehicles will be introduced starting this autumn. The UK government has also announced £12 million in research and development grants.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering a premium of up to £6,000 for the exchange of a diesel or petrol car for an electric vehicle with an official announcement expected on 6 July. There are also rumours that Tesla might plan a Gigafactory on the Isles.

The Greek government has announced extensive subsidies to foster electric mobility in the country. The goal is for every third vehicle to be electric by 2030 as the country introduces purchase premiums as well as furthering charging infrastructure.

In an economic stimulus package following the Corona crisis, the German government has included several measures to promote electric mobility. The most powerful one is that the state is doubling its share of the environmental bonus in the form of a new “innovation premium”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a massive increase in support for the French car industry. The head of state is thus reacting to the crisis at PSA and Renault – the main reason being the slump in sales due to the Corona crisis.

The EU Commission has apparently drawn up initial proposals for an economic and climate protection package in the transport sector worth up to 100 billion euros. Among other things, the plans outline a purchase premium for ‘cleaner cars’. There is apparently still some dispute about which cars should be included.

The British capital unlocks as TfL resumes service on most London Underground lines. The opening goes hand in hand with the Mayor reintroducing the Congestion Charge and ULEZ. Both had been suspended during the Covid-19 lockdown to enable key workers to travel freely.

The Chinese government has issued three national standards on safety requirements for electric vehicles and their batteries, which will come into force on 1 January 2021. One of the standards relates to electric vehicles in general, another specifically to electric buses and the third to traction batteries.

UK transport secretary Grant Shapps announced the government wants at least one city centre to be restricted exclusively to bikes and electric vehicles. In York, councillors are calling for York to bid to become the first such zero-emission city.

The UK Government has fast-tracked trials of electric kick-scooters as part of a £2 billion investment in green travel solutions. The trials will now start next month – a year earlier than planned.

Spain’s government is working on the new edition of its eMobility subsidy program MOVES for 2020, and although the details are not to be officially published until the end of May (beginning of June at the latest), some information has already been leaked.

The Maltese government is providing 3.5 million euros in subsidies for the changeover to cleaner vehicles. Grants are to be given to anyone who de-registers and scraps their old combustion engine, while grants of between 400 and 6,000 euros are available for electric vehicles ranging from pedelecs to cargo bikes and cars.

The Chinese government has now also extended purchase premiums until the end of 2022. However, the conditions have changed, which should cause particular concern for German premium manufacturers. Tesla is also affected.

The Chinese government has now officially confirmed that it will exempt New Energy Vehicles (BEV, FCEV and PHEV) from the 10 per cent purchase tax in 2021 and 2022. Rumours to this effect had already been in circulation since the beginning of this month.

In Europe, an electric car is responsible for almost three times less CO2 over its life cycle than a comparable petrol or diesel car, Transport & Environment has determined and published a corresponding calculation tool.