This is how many electric lorries are on Germany’s roads

Image credits: E.ON Energie Deutschland GmbH, photographer: Alena Zielinski

Electric mobility in Germany is growing: almost two million fully electric passenger cars are on Germany’s roads and are powered – alongside hundreds of thousands of private and business wall boxes – by more than 191,000 public charging points. E.ON data experts have calculated the impact that electric cars registered in Germany and the rapidly growing number of electric lorries are having on climate protection.

“Electric cars are no longer the exception; instead, more and more people across all regions of the country are driving electric vehicles. (...) In the transport sector, too, electric mobility is establishing itself as the drive system of the future and is already showing strong momentum: there are currently around 109,000 fully electric lorries and vans registered in Germany. Due to their weight, the high number of kilometres travelled and the associated higher energy consumption, commercial vehicles offer enormous potential for climate protection and improved air quality if we consistently commit to electric mobility,” said Filip Thon, CEO of E.ON Germany.

Significant greenhouse gas reductions through the electrification of lorries

The majority of electric lorries – around 78,000 vehicles – are vans, followed by just over 21,000 small lorries with a gross vehicle weight between 3.5 and 12 tonnes. In addition, nearly 10,000 heavy lorries (over 12 tonnes) and tractor units for towing trailers are powered by electricity.

Filip Thon: “Our experts’ analysis shows that the current fleet of electric vans and lorries already saves over 1.2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year when charged with green electricity; when charged using the German electricity mix, the saving is just under one million tonnes. And this is with electric commercial vehicles accounting for just 2.6 per cent of the total. Through the rigorous electrification of these vehicle classes – from vans to 40-tonne lorries – greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector can be significantly reduced. And despite many preconceptions, electric lorries can already be just as economical as their diesel equivalents.”

With more than 57,000 registered electric lorries and vans, 604,000 tonnes of CO₂ are saved annually in North Rhine-Westphalia alone. Bavaria, too, is making an important contribution to climate protection with over 12,000 electric commercial vehicles, thereby avoiding a good 134,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. A particularly high proportion of heavy electric lorries weighing over twelve tonnes are in use in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Two million cars are purely electric

The number of fully electric cars in Germany will have risen to just under two million by 2025. Most of these electric cars – around 430,000 – are registered in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg follow in second and third place with 370,000 and 310,000 electric cars respectively. Bremen has surpassed the 10,000 mark for fully electric cars for the first time. Road transport is one of the largest sources of CO₂ emissions in Germany, making electric mobility a major lever for climate protection. The electric cars registered today alone are estimated to save 5.2 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year – provided they are charged using 100 per cent green electricity. When charged using the current electricity mix, the figure is just over 4.2 million tonnes. In North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, the federal states with the highest number of electric cars, over one million tonnes of CO₂ are saved annually in each. In addition, local exhaust fumes and noise pollution are reduced, which is particularly significant in urban areas.

*Nationwide survey of more than 1,000 owners of fully electric cars, conducted by Civey on behalf of E.ON Germany between 30 April and 26 May 2025.