Belatedly, Germany Follows California, Offers Electric-Car Incentives

As governments try to encourage the adoption of electric cars, incentives have proven to be one of the most powerful tools.

That's why Germany has finally come around, and will now offer certain perks to drivers of plug-in cars as part of its goal of putting 1 million of them on the country's roads by 2020.

The German cabinet backed a bill that would give electric-car drivers free parking as well as access to bus lanes, Bloomberg reports.

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The incentives would apply to drivers of battery-electric cars, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and certain plug-in hybrids.

Only hybrid cars that have an electric range of more than 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) and carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions of no more than 50 grams per kilometer will qualify under the new scheme.

As with California's High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane access stickers, cars in Germany will also get their own identification. This will have the added benefit of raising the public profile of green cars, the German government believes.