Electric cars are the most discussed topic for the future of mobility. Almost all well-known German vehicle manufacturers are planning to switch to electric vehicles in production over the next few years. Federal and state subsidy programs have led to a sharp increase in the number of electric cars on the road. Nationwide, the number of electric cars more than doubled between 2020 and 2021, although the share (0,64%) remains below one percent of the total vehicle population. Based on figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), the regional distributions can be examined in more detail.

The number of vehicles registered for circulation with an official license plate and listed in the KBA's Central Vehicle Register was counted. This method leads to high shares in typical "car cities" such as Wolfsburg (6.4%), Ingolstadt (2%), Braunschweig (1.9%) and Stuttgart (1.6%), which often have high reports due to manufacturer-owned registrations, even if the cars are actually in use elsewhere. Weimar also stands out with an electric car share of 5.3%. This is also due to the Berlin-based car-sharing provider WeShare, which prefers to use the Weimar license plate (WE).

A look at the map shows strong differences in share across the Federal Republic. While the shares in southern German districts are often above 0.68%, many districts in eastern and central Germany are below the average.Berlin is an exception with 0.73%. The large metropolitan regions around Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg also have very high percentages. The "natural breaks" method was chosen for class assignment so that the classes are as homogeneous as possible within themselves and as heterogeneous as possible to each other.

For a deeper insight into the economic consequences of changing mobility behavior, we recommend the publication "MoveOn III – Folgen eines veränderten Mobilitätsverhaltens für Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt". In addition, a regionalization of the results will be published this year.

Other figures can be found here.