date | theme

27. October 2020 | Buy electric cars: up to EUR 9,000 environmental bonus – tax-free

29. October 2020 | Taxation of private use of electric vehicles

3 November 2020 | Vehicle tax on electric vehicles: tax exemption extended until 2026

15. July 2022 | Wallbox – Promotion for e-car users (this contribution)

The installation of charging stations for charging the battery of electric vehicles is interesting in both the private and entrepreneurial sectors. It makes sense because you can expect public support for this. However, the demand for the promotion of a wallbox for private use was so high in the past that, despite a supplementary funding, the funding ended at the end of 2021. However, there are considerations in politics to reintroduce this funding in 2022. In order to do this, however, it is important to know that support has so far been subject to certain conditions. In particular, it should be noted that the electricity used for charging comes from regenerative sources.

1st Funding for the Wallbox – Introduction

Is it the insight of the German citizens that led to an increasing shift towards e-mobility with regard to the drastic climatic consequences of the consumption of fossil energy – also here in Germany? Or are they rather practical, financial, for example tax-advantageous reasons that contributed to increased sales of e-cars in recent years? No matter how much reason or sense of responsibility one trusts the people in this country, with which philosophical or even anthroposophical glasses one may look at the answer to this, the trend is clear. But electric vehicles also have a certain peculiarity, which one has yet to get used to both as an e-car user personally and as a society in general. After all, charging the battery is hardly comparable to the former rapid refueling at the filling station.

Those who rely solely on charging at publicly accessible charging stations can sometimes experience one or the other surprise. All nearby charging stations are completely occupied. Sometimes the loading takes place much slower than actually stated. And sometimes charging stations are completely out of function. Therefore, it is more than understandable that many owners of e-cars would like to make themselves as independent as possible from the public charging facilities sooner rather than later. No wonder, then, that charging at the domestic socket is so attractive as an alternative.

Sure, the power flows far too slowly at the socket for you to be able to charge the battery of a full-blown car in a timely manner. In addition, safety concerns also arise here. For electric vehicles with low battery charging capacity, the socket may still be acceptable, but if you want to charge more electricity at home, you can hardly pass a wallbox.

2. What is a Wallbox?

Even if you can assume that most people in Germany now know what a wallbox is, a short explanation is allowed here. A wallbox is a charging station for electric cars and other electric cars, which is typically installed on the outside wall of a house or in the home garage. Via a wallbox, electricity can be charged both from the power grid of the electricity suppliers and from a possibly existing photovoltaic system. In particular, the latter option is of course the most attractive, because it basically makes the electricity from the energy of the sun radiation available largely free of charge.

A wallbox can also have more than one charging point. In this way, several electric vehicles can be supplied with electricity at the same time. However, a wallbox can also serve as a regulatory instrument for the use of electricity stored in an electric car. If, for example, you have a photovoltaic system on your home roof and hardly need the electric car in the next sunny days, then you can use the electricity stored in the battery of the car at home at night via the wallbox. The purchase of electricity from the public power grid can thus be avoided.

3rd state funding of the Wallbox

However, the installation of a wallbox means an investment. Fortunately, however, sometimes there is also public funding for this. Since November 2020, KfW funding by the Federal Government has been possible. At that time, funding of EUR 300,000,000.00 was made available. Although the funds were quickly used up due to the high interest, the Federal Government then supplemented the funds again. For this purpose, it provided another EUR 100.000.000.00.

Since the end of 2021, however, support for private households has expired. Nevertheless, there are prospects that the Federal Government could decide on the funding again in 2022. For this reason, we now want to discuss the details of the requirements for the promotion of a wallbox.

4th Funding Programme Wallbox – Conditions and Procedure

First of all, it must be noted that support from KfW can be possible for both private consumers and entrepreneurs. In addition, other sources can also provide funding for the purchase of a wallbox. This can be the case, for example, at the level of the federal states. However, we report here exclusively on the possible funding by the Federal Government to the extent that this has been the case for private individuals so far. For companies and entrepreneurs, however, KfW funding is still possible. That is another point we are discussing.

4.1. Wallbox promotion for private individuals

4.1.1. Applications only possible for certain wallboxes

The promotion of a wallbox for private use has so far been subject to certain conditions. The wallbox had to come from certain manufacturers, which KfW lists on its homepage. In addition, an application for funding had to be submitted first. To do this, you had to specify in advance how many charging points the Wallbox should have and what costs you expect. Only when you received the application confirmation from KfW could you order the installation of a wallbox. Other additional public funding for a wallbox, on the other hand, was considered an exclusion criterion for the receipt of KfW funding.

The wallbox had to meet certain criteria. Thus, a wallbox was only eligible if the charging power per charging point was a maximum of 11 kW. If you wanted to charge two electric cars simultaneously with a wallbox, a maximum of 22 kW of electricity could flow via the two charging points. If the selected wallbox has a higher charging capacity, the specialist company could ask for a throttling to a maximum of 11 kW during installation. However, this also required a certificate of the executing specialist company.

Another point concerns the demand for so-called intelligent control. It ensures that the plant can be integrated into the power grid. However, this setting for connection to the power grid does not really have to be selected at the control of the wallbox. For KfW funding to be used, it was sufficient that a wallbox had the ability to select this option.

4.1.2. Grant amount depending on the cost of a wallbox

There was also a lower limit in terms of installation costs for the Wallbox. For a wallbox with a charging point, you could only receive a subsidy if the cost was at least EUR 900.00. Each additional charging point increased the share limit by a further EUR 900.00. The funding per charging point was also a maximum of EUR 900.00. For a wallbox with two charging points and installation costs of EUR 1,500.00, for example, you could only receive a subsidy of EUR 900.00. If in this example the cost was EUR 1,900.00, on the other hand, one would receive a subsidy of EUR 1,800.00.

4.1.3. Only electricity from renewable energy sources

Apart from the characteristics of the Wallbox, the electricity used to charge the electric car was also important. The electricity could only come from renewable energy sources. Ideally, of course, this can be obtained via its own photovoltaic system. If no such condition is available, the proof of compliance with this condition had to be provided in another way. This was possible through the contract with the electricity supply company.

If you were to use your own photovoltaic system to generate electricity, then you also had to prove that the electricity generated was sufficient to charge the electric car. This was confirmed by a specialist company. Otherwise, you could also buy the additional electricity needed to charge the battery from an energy supplier. But here, too, it had to be possible to prove that this electricity also comes from renewable energy sources.

4.1.4. Procedure

Incidentally, a specialist company had to install the wallbox. For this work, you had to submit the invoice as a receipt to KfW in order to subsequently receive the funding. A maximum of twelve months elapsed between the application confirmation and the submission of the installation invoice for the Wallbox. Before the payout, it took about eight to nine weeks on average.

4.2. Wallbox promotion for entrepreneurs

4.2.1. Who is eligible for funding?

The KfW funding for the installation of a wallbox for entrepreneurs can be used by both individual companies and freelancers for their company. This also applies to partnerships and corporations. In addition, public law bodies and municipal enterprises as well as non-profit institutions of all kinds are also entitled to receive funding.

4.2.2. Derogations from private applicants

The Wallbox funding for this group basically only deviates in some aspects from that for private households. The details relate in particular to the charging power, which may amount to a maximum of 22 kW instead of 11 kW per charging point. But there are also differences in the amount of costs to purchase a wallbox or similar charging stations. Thus, eligible applicants only receive a grant if the costs per charging point are at least EUR 1,285.71. If a charging station has more than one charging point and the cost per charging point is less than a multiple of EUR 1,285.71, then the amount of funding can be at least 70% of the costs. For example, if a wallbox has a device for the simultaneous charging of three electric vehicles and the system costs about EUR 3,000.00, then the subsidy amount is EUR 2,100.00. In addition, there is a limit of EUR 45,000.00 for the promotion of such charging stations per location.

It is also good to know that charging to this charging station is allowed for both operational and private electric vehicles.

5. For whom is it worth promoting a wallbox?

Finally, a wallbox is the perfect complement to the purchase of an electric car. This is all the more true if the charging current comes from your own photovoltaic system. But also the connection of the wallbox to the power grid can offer financial advantages. In addition, the common good also benefits if electricity from the battery of the electric car is available via its own wallbox to cover consumption peaks. This is also the reason for the demand for intelligent control of the wallbox, even if the actual feed-in of electricity in this way remains purely voluntary.

At the moment, however, only entrepreneurs and companies or equivalent bodies can apply to KfW to promote charging stations. Even if the minimum costs for a charging station are slightly higher than those for a private wallbox, this is certainly a worth considering. Finally, the general support for the conversion to electromobility and the production of renewable energies also benefits in other ways. However, it is also clear that at the beginning of these conversion processes, the support is very likely to be higher than through subsequent supplementary support. So if there is already a changeover, then the current opportunities should be seized as soon as possible in order to get the maximum financial benefits from it.