BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said he wants to extend tax incentives for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids for another decade.
Germany is trying to boost electric car sales in response to a diesel emissions cheating scandal that has engulfed the auto industry in the last three years.
Scholz told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that German carmakers had invested billions of euros in electric mobility.
"We must accompany that with an expansion of the charging infrastructure and with tax measures," he told the newspaper in the article published on Wednesday.
"I think it is important in terms of industrial policy that we extend our support program for electric battery vehicles and plug-in hybrids which are currently limited to 2021 for the whole of the next decade," he said.
Government subsidy schemes have helped lift sales but even so, electric cars made up only about 1 percent of new car registrations last year, the KBA motor vehicle authority has said.
Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) said earlier this month it would make an aggressive push to build electric cars and this would force it to cut jobs.