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Effectiveness and Heterogeneous Effects of Purchase Grants for Electric Vehicles

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  • Peter Haan
  • Adrián Santonja
  • Aleksandar Zaklan

Abstract

We evaluate German purchase subsidies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) using data on new vehicle registrations in Germany during 2015-2022. We account for confounding time trends and interacting EU-level CO2 standards using neighboring countries as a control group. The program was cost-ineffective, as only 40% of BEV and 25% of PHEV registrations were subsidy-induced, and had strong distributional effects, with greater uptake in wealthier and greener counties. The implied abatement cost of 870 euro per ton of CO2 for BEVs and 2,470 euro for PHEVs suggests that subsidies to PHEVs were especially cost-ineffective.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Haan & Adrián Santonja & Aleksandar Zaklan, 2023. "Effectiveness and Heterogeneous Effects of Purchase Grants for Electric Vehicles," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0011, Berlin School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bdp:dpaper:0011
    DOI: 10.48462/opus4-4761
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Decarbonizing road transport; electric mobility; purchase subsidies; policy effectiveness; distributional effects of climate policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy

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