The Federal Government is holding back on the purchase of electric cars. Only 73 of the almost 8,400 vehicles purchased by the government in 2018 for ministries and authorities are powered by electricity. That's a quota of less than one percent.

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For a government that claims to want to lead the way in "good practice" when it comes to switching to alternative propulsion systems, this is an almost miserable result - especially considering that the acquisition of clean vehicles totaled almost 100 million euros in the budget.

Ministry released figures only on specific request

The competent Ministry of the Interior has submitted the list of all vehicles only to a specific demand of the Greens parliamentary group. Obviously, the modest successes in terms of own e-mobility of the government itself are embarrassing. On a first request of the Greens in December, the officials with 251 cars had called a much higher number - but they had also counted hybrid vehicles. Key date of the query was November 30th.

"How should that ever become something with electromobility, if not even the federal government buys electric cars," asks Oliver Krischer, traffic expert of the Green Party. Once again, the "pithy targets" of former Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt, CSU, turned out to be "hot air".

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