Anyone who buys an electric car should receive fewer government subsidies in the future.

As announced on Tuesday from government circles, the federal government has agreed on a new funding system.

Julia Loehr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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In a first step, there should only be a subsidy of 4,500 euros from the federal government for purely electrically operated vehicles with a purchase price of up to 40,000 euros instead of 6,000 euros.

For more expensive vehicles, this drops from 5,000 to 3,000 euros.

The change is expected to come into effect next year.

There should still be no subsidies for electric cars that cost more than 65,000 euros.

The plug-in hybrids with combustion engines, for which there are currently up to 4500 euros, will no longer be funded from the beginning of next year.

In a second step, there should only be a subsidy for electric cars up to a price of 45,000 euros: 3000 euros.

It is not yet clear when this will apply.

In fact, the subsidies will be abolished immediately

The scope of the subsidies should decrease significantly overall.

While around 5 billion euros are still planned for the purchase premiums for this year, it should be a maximum of 2.5 billion euros in 2023.

If the amount is exhausted, there should be no additional money.

The Federal Ministry of Economics recently introduced a similar upper limit for subsidies for energy-efficient new buildings.

The new regulation of the purchase bonus for electric cars - officially called environmental bonus - is part of the economic plan for the Energy and Climate Fund (EKF), which the cabinet wants to adopt this Wednesday.

There have been long discussions between the SPD, Greens and FDP in recent weeks about what should be financed from the special fund and to what extent.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) would like to abolish the purchase premiums for electric cars entirely.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had proposed eliminating the subsidy for plug-in hybrids and reducing that for purely electric cars – as is now the case.

In the future, the premiums should only be available for private buyers, not for commercial customers.

However, the tax advantages of electric cars used as company cars should remain in place even with the changed rules.

In the first half of this year, the federal government paid out 1.7 billion euros for purchase premiums, almost 30 percent more than in the same period last year.

The manufacturers are currently increasing the state subsidy by up to 3,000 euros.

It remains to be seen whether this will remain the case or whether they will also reduce their share.

Even if the new regulation will not officially take effect until 2023: In fact, it is already in effect, because there are long waiting times for electric cars.

The environmental bonus can only be applied for once the car has been registered.

In most cases, that won't be the case until next year.

According to the coalition agreement, the purchase premiums are to be phased out completely at the end of 2025.