Improving the charging infrastructure in Germany

The charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in Germany leaves a lot to be desired: although there are more and more e-cars, the number of public charging points is not keeping pace. Read more about the German government’s master plan to promote e-mobility here.

Germany still lacks many publicly accessible charging points to achieve the traffic turnaround with electric vehicles. This is because these vehicles need their own charging point. This cannot be located in the already well-developed network of charging stations without structural adjustments. Accordingly, the charging infrastructure and the speed of its expansion is a key factor for the future acceptance and spread of electric vehicles.

There has recently been good news on this front: The Federal Network Agency has recorded a continuous increase in available charging points. In 2021, the largest increase in charging stations to date took place with over 7,600 public charging points. At the same time, demand is significantly higher: in 2025, Germany will probably need over 250,000 charging points for electric vehicles. As 69% of those surveyed stated that they would not buy an electric car due to too few charging stations, investment in expansion is urgently needed.

At the same time, Germany intends to achieve its climate targets by reducing emissions in transport, among other things. There should be around 15 million electric cars by 2030. The federal government is funding the expansion of the necessary charging infrastructure – one million charging points are needed. For example, 800 million euros are available for private wallboxes, and consumers receive 900 euros for the expansion of charging points. So many applications have been received for this that the maximum funding amount has already increased several times.

The growing gap between the number of electric cars and the number of public charging stations is particularly problematic. Around 60 percent of private parking spaces for electric cars have a charging point, which means that over a third of the energy must be made available publicly or in company parking lots.

A data analysis shows that 27 electric cars in Germany currently have to share a charging station. At the beginning of 2023, around one million electric cars were registered in this country, a share of just over 2.1 percent of the total car fleet. According to map and navigation service provider Here Technologies, 105,000 public charging points are available.

Interactive maps on the service provider’s website show how many electric cars and charging points are available in each German district. This shows that most electric cars can be found in large cities, where there are also the most charging points. In Berlin, for example, 9 electric cars share a public charging point, while in Wiesbaden there are almost 50 vehicles.

In addition to the availability of charging points, users are also concerned about the charging time of electric vehicles. This is because combustion engines only need a few minutes to fill up. Electric cars need between one and five hours, depending on the model and power of the charging station. Fast-charging stations offer a higher kW output, allowing cars to charge to about half capacity in 30 minutes or less. However, there are still very few fast-charging stations in Germany.

In addition to the number of charging stations, some of which consist of several charging points, it is also useful to look at the distribution of the charging infrastructure in Germany. In Stuttgart, there are around 23 charging stations per ten square kilometers, while in the district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte there are only 0.1 charging stations. The density is lowest in the center and east of Germany and highest in the west and south.

A Europe-wide comparison shows that the charging infrastructure in this country is very unevenly distributed. Although the number of electric cars in Germany is quite high, the number of charging points in an EU comparison and in relation to the number of cars is rather low. In the Netherlands, there are seven cars for every charging station.

The comparison by the British agency Uswich, which assesses the charging infrastructure in 33 major European cities, is also interesting. The Icelandic capital Reykjavík is at the top of the list, as 65% of charging stations here provide free electricity. At an average of 0.29 euros, the chargeable electricity is quite cheap – in Germany, prices range between 0.25 and 0.50 euros per kWh. Glasgow and Lisbon also perform well in the comparison due to a high density of charging stations and low prices. Cologne and Frankfurt, on the other hand, are further down the rankings, as charging is significantly more expensive here – and the charging infrastructure still leaves a lot to be desired.

In October 2022, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing adopted a master plan for the expansion of the charging network, which aims to provide one million publicly accessible charging points by 2030. There is a budget of 6.3 billion euros for this. For this to work, over 130,000 new charging points would have to be added every year from 2023.

The German Association of Energy and Water Industries expressed doubts about achieving this target. With the measures taken so far, figures such as 15 million e-cars by 2030 cannot be achieved. Furthermore, according to the association, it is not the number of charging stations that matters, but their performance. Accordingly, it advises that the focus of the charging infrastructure in Germany should be on improving charging capacity in order to be able to charge more vehicles per day.

In addition, the German government plans to implement further measures to reduce CO2 emissions in road traffic and promote electromobility. These include charging stations at transport hubs, the integration of fast-charging stations into the power grid, better digitalization of the charging station overview, new locations, the promotion of solar systems for self-sufficient drivers and investments in electric trucks. With the growth plan for e-mobility, electric cars could account for up to eight percent of electricity consumption in future instead of 0.5 percent.

Also exciting: in May 2022, G+L focused on the topic of mobility in Europe and presented many interesting projects.