Premium admitter survey:

Most registration offices cannot yet deliver i-Kfz level 4

Cologne. It snags on every corner and edge. Register digitally, get in and drive off – this is how the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport imagined the brave new world of registration in Germany from September 1st. But the reality looks different. Only one out of five registration offices is currently technically and personnel capable of working with i-Kfz Level 4, the federal government’s new digital registration portal. As for the rest: none. This was the result of the evaluation of a representative survey by Cologne PremiumZulasser eG.

“There is still a wide gap between desire and reality. Most registration offices cannot deliver i-Kfz Level 4 to commercial customers such as car dealerships, fleet operators and registration companies because they are not yet connected to the major customer interface of the Federal Motor Transport Authority,” explains Florian Cichon, CEO of the cooperative, to which 55 local and regional registration service providers are affiliated. firmly. 113 of 189 registration offices nationwide took part in the survey, which, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, should be i-vehicle capable at the beginning of September. 54 percent said they had not yet used i-Kfz. 18 percent were unable to provide precise information about the status of implementation. “Extrapolated, this means that at around 325 of 414 registration offices there is still no question of digital registration, getting in and driving off. There is still a lot to do,” said Cichon. And: The few registration offices that worked with i-Kfz did not have all the functions.

Meanwhile, criticism is growing among car dealers. “The implementation is slow, as is unfortunately the case with most digitization of administrative services,” complains the automotive industry in Schleswig-Holstein and is demanding binding guidelines from politicians as to when i-Kfz should be implemented.

According to the premium licensee, the main reasons for the initial difficulties are the high safety standards that the registration offices have to meet and problems with the Federal Motor Transport Authority’s software, which ensures access to i-vehicles. Added to this are the inadequate technical equipment and the shortage of personnel in the registration offices. PZeG boss Cichon expects that all registration offices will have converted their systems to i-Kfz at the beginning of the new year at the earliest. This is also critical because a rush to the registration offices is to be expected at the end of the year due to the reduction in the environmental bonus for electric cars from January 1, 2024. The situation is getting worse because the GHG quota for electric vehicles for the current year can only be applied for until mid-November.