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The general rule of thumb for cars is that you will have to keep spending money on it. Short of renting the car out, it is impossible to make money from it, unless you have a battery EV registered in Germany.
Since last year, German EV owners have been making around 300 Euros (~RM 1.400) from each car by selling greenhouse gas quotas back to the oil industry. It works similarly to carbon credits trading.
The greenhouse gas quotes are paid by the oil industry, which is required under EU regulations to reduce their carbon emissions by 7 percent (versus year 2010's figures) in 2022, before reaching 25 percent by 2030.
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Oil companies can either invest of new technologies or fuel products to meet the targets, or purchase greenhouse gas quotas from other green channels, including EV car owners.
The additional cost of these carbon reducing initiatives will inevitably be passed on to drivers of combustion engine cars, who will indirectly contribute to the payments to EV owners.
Yes, 300 Euros per year is not a lot of money and surely no German would trade-in their combustion engine car for an EV just to get a couple of months’ worth of groceries. Still, let’s not discount the fact that this system allows EVs to do something no combustion engine car can do - to make back some money for its owner.
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To sell their greenhouse quota, owners will only need to submit a copy of their vehicle ownership certificate, to a carbon trading platform, some of which are operated by solar panel / renewable energy companies, and Germany’s national automotive club ADAC (equivalent to our now defunct AAM).
The value of the quota will be adjusted annually, based on Germany's energy source mix and average distance travelled (national average).
The bad news is that the value of the quota will be reduced for 2023. The new value has yet to be determined but Germany will be relaxing the carbon reduction targets for the oil industry due to the on-going energy supply woes caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
High cost of natural gas – an important fuel for home heating, as well as feedstock for industrial products, is crippling Germany’s economy. There is a lot of talk about renewable energy, but neither wind nor solar is able to plug the gap left by shortage in traditional fossil fuel.
