E-cars: In these regions most of them drive

Five years ago, anyone driving an electric car could still be considered an oddity on Germany's roads. Today, vehicles with an "E" for electric vehicle at the end of the license plate are a common sight in many places.

However, not everyone in the country is equally convinced about electric mobility. While in Wolfsburg, about one in seven cars is at least partially electric, in the Görlitz district, only one in 50 cars is.

Of course, Lower Saxony's car city benefits from the fact that Volkswagen has its headquarters here. All VW AG company vehicles are registered in Wolfsburg. Money is also likely to play a role in purchasing considerations: In Görlitz, for example, the disposable per capita income in 2022 was less than 23,000 euros per year, according to the Federal and State Statistical Offices. However, new electric cars are still significantly more expensive to purchase than combustion-engine vehicles, easily costing tens of thousands of euros depending on the model. Industry experts such as Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, however, expect discounts to increase – and the used car market for electric vehicles to continue to grow.

Another reason for the widely varying share of electric vehicles in Germany is the charging infrastructure. The eastern German states lag significantly behind in some areas. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has only 94 charging stations per 1,000 square kilometers, and there are only 632 fast-charging points. In contrast, Lower Saxony has more than 300 charging stations per 1,000 square kilometers, Baden-Württemberg has more than 700, and Berlin even has more than 6,000.

Even though the share of electric vehicles is increasing, most Germans still rely on combustion engines. More than 43 million gasoline or diesel-powered cars are registered with the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA). Electric cars and plug-in hybrids, at approximately 2.5 million vehicles, account for just over 5 percent of the total car fleet.

However, looking at developments in recent years, the progress in electromobility is quite evident. In 2018, the proportion of cars with charging plugs was negligible. Only 0.2 percent of the car fleet was electric, compared to just 0.5 percent five years ago.

The increasing acceptance is also reflected in new registration figures: just over one in six newly registered vehicles (17.5 percent) between January and April was a fully electric vehicle. Since 2022, there have been declines, particularly when subsidies for new purchases expired.

However, not every federal state is equally committed to electric vehicles. According to KBA figures, in Lower Saxony, more than one in five of all newly registered cars between January and April was a pure electric vehicle. In Thuringia, by contrast, the figure was only about one in nine, or less than 1,800 out of 15,000 new cars.

These reservations are also reflected in the Mobility Compass survey: While about five percent of all respondents stated that they generally reject electric cars, the figure among people from Thuringia was more than 10 percent. While the results are not representative of the general population, they provide a good overview of how readers of regional media feel about the transport transition.

However, the lead in new registrations in Lower Saxony and other federal states such as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg is likely also due to the local automotive industry.

In any case, demand among private car owners still has room to grow. This, at least, was suggested by a recent analysis by insurer HUK Coburg, which examined its own data in more detail. According to the analysis, the share of purely electric cars in the private vehicle fleet was only 3 percent in the first quarter of 2025.