The share of renewable energies saw a significant rise in the transport sector in 2020 by 7.3 percent from 5.6% in 2019.

The main reason contributing to the sharp rise is the increase in the use of renewable energy. Such as the rise of the selling of biofuels under the legal requirement of the greenhouse gas reduction quota. The sales of biofuels almost rose to 10%.

As per the initial estimates by the Working Group on Energy Balances (AGEB), the final energy consumption in the transport sector in 2020 is just under 604 billion kWh, seven percent below the previous year’s figure of 647 billion kWh and the lowest level at any time since 1990.

Development of final energy consumption from renewables in the transport sector

Translated text

Endenergieverbrauch in Milliarden Kilowattstunden [Mrd. kWh] : Final energy consumption in billions of kilowatt hours [billion kWh].

Anteil am Endenergieverbrauch im Verkehr [%]: Share of final energy consumption in transport [%]

Biofuels

Based on an extrapolation of preliminary data from the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), total sales of biofuels in 2020 rose by around 24 percent in terms of energy content.

There was a particularly significant increase in the biodiesel/HVO (+35 percent) to the current level of 2.8 million metric tons. Sales of bioethanol decreased by three percent to just under 1.1 million tons. The use of biomethane as fuel was up again compared to 2019 due to the improved economic conditions compared to 2019 at 884 million kWh, around 34 percent higher than the previous year’s figure (660 million kWh). Vegetable oil continued to be used to only a very small extent (around 1,000 tons, 10 million kWh).

Final energy consumption from renewables in the transport sector in 2020
Shares in percent [%], values for the previous year in parentheses

Translated text

Stromverbauch Verkehr: Renewable power in the transport sector

Pflanzenöl: Vegetable oil

Renewable power in the transport sector

According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), in the year 2020, 394,940 new cars with electric drive systems (battery-electric, plug-in, fuel cell) were newly registered.

This was 13.5 percent of all newly registered passenger cars in Germany. The number of purely battery-electric passenger cars amounted to 194,163, around three times as many as in the previous year.

As a result, electricity consumption by the entire electric vehicle fleet again increased sharply year on year. However, at 0.6 billion kWh, it was still well below the consumption of electricity in rail transport (around 11 billion kWh).

The use of renewable electricity in the transport sector increased by almost ten percent in 2020 to just under 5.4 billion kWh (2019: 4.9 billion kWh).

Source: umwelt Bundesamt