The German government introduced draft legislation earlier this month aimed at giving the electric-vehicle sector a boost.

Under this legislation, electric cars would be allowed to use inner-city bus lanes; they would also be able to park free of charge, while parking spaces close to re-charging stations would be reserved exclusively for electric cars. They are already exempt from road tax for a period of 10 years.

In 2009, Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) set a target for one million electric cars to be on the road in Germany by 2020. Unveiling the new initiatives, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said: “We are confident that we will reach that goal.”

However, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Car Centre for Automotive Research at Duisburg-Essen University, said: “Chancellor Merkel might have just as easily said that we would have 100,000 cars driving on the moon by 2020.”

According to research carried out by his organisation, around 16,900 electric cars were driven on German roads in the first six month of this year — “representing four cars for every 10,000 standard fuel-driven ones”.

In comparison, the ratio in France is 10 electric cars for every 10,000. Germany has 4,400 recharging stations, while France hopes to expand its network to 16,000 by the end of the year.

Professor Dudenhoeffer added: “Germans are simply not buying electric cars. This is due to three main reasons — the high cost, a low level of autonomy and the re-charging time. None of these latest initiatives tackles any of those problems.”

Meanwhile, Matthias Wissmann, the head of the German automotive industry association, said: “These measures aren’t enough; they need to be followed up further with tax breaks for electric cars.”