Charging stations for electric cars: "Expansion speed should be quintupled"

The Germans are supposed to switch to zero-emission cars, but electromobility has only made slow progress so far. There are still far too few public charging stations. How far apart are political desires and reality?

The European Union says goodbye to the internal combustion engine: From 2035, vehicle manufacturers in the EU member states will no longer be allowed to sell cars with diesel and gasoline engines that are harmful to the climate and the environment. It remains unclear which alternative types of drive will remain permitted in addition to the classic combustion engines. What is certain, however, is that electrically powered e-cars fully meet the new European requirements.

In Germany, sales of e-cars are slowly picking up speed: the market share of pure electric vehicles has multiplied over the past five years from a low level. According to the Electromobility Act (EmoG), e-cars include not only exclusively electrically powered cars, but also so-called plug-in hybrids, which run on both fuel and electricity. In the past year, the combined share of cars with charging cables in the German car population reached more than two percent for the first time.

The vast majority of passenger cars on German roads still burn petrol or diesel. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing announced an ambitious program to expand the German charging infrastructure so that more people would switch to e-cars.

By 2030, a total of one million publicly available charging points should be available in Germany. Charging, they say, should then be as easy as refueling. However, current figures show that the expansion of charging stations is still lagging far behind the target.

More than ten thousand new charging points were recently put into operation in Germany every year. At the end of 2021, 57,912 charging options were installed. By September of this year, the Federal Network Agency counted 68,275 operational charging points nationwide. In order to achieve the federal government’s goal, however, the expansion would have to go much faster. There are only seven years left until 2030.

“The expansion of the charging infrastructure for e-vehicles is one of the most urgent infrastructure tasks for Germany. Nevertheless, far too little has happened in the expansion,” criticizes the Association of the Automotive Industry. “The pace of expansion over the past twelve months should be more than quintupled. Germany has a lot of catching up to do.”

A study by the management consultancy Roland Berger suggests that Germany has reached a critical phase in the mobility transition. In this phase, consumers can increasingly afford long-range e-cars, but the charging infrastructure is not sufficient for the supply. “In recent years, what has been lacking above all is the necessary fleet of e-vehicles, which offers private companies the incentive to build up the charging infrastructure,” explains management consultant Jan-Philipp Hasenberg. “This relationship, sometimes referred to as the chicken-and-egg problem, is now increasingly unraveling.”

Is there a traffic jam at the charging stations? The current data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) and the Federal Network Agency on the number of cars and the supply of e-charging stations do not indicate a rapid relaxation, on the contrary: according to official information, there were 11.6 charging stations for 100 e-cars in 2017. Since the e-fleet is growing faster than the supply of charging stations, there were only 4.9 public charging stations for every 100 e-cars available at the beginning of 2022. The situation therefore appears to be getting worse.

However, automotive expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer does not consider such comparative calculations to be very useful. “The quick charging stations on the motorways are already there, and unfortunately they are often empty,” says the head of the CAR Institute in Duisburg. According to Dudenhöffer, it is more important that there are good supply concepts for the busy centers in cities such as Munich and Berlin. In rural areas, on the other hand, people could easily set up a home charging station, a so-called wall box, for their electric car on their own property.

Dudenhöffer also criticizes the fact that the federal government is planning to limit the purchase premium for electric cars. He warns of serious consequences. “Then investors and companies will also consider whether they still want to build charging stations. Without electric cars, charging stations are not much fun.”

The promotion of e-cars and the expansion of charging stations must therefore come together, emphasizes the industry insider. In addition to the purchase price and the range, psychological factors are also likely to play a role in the switch from combustion engines to electric cars. According to an evaluation of the energy transition barometer by the state development bank KfW, insufficient public charging infrastructure acts as a deterrent for half of German car buyers. In fact, the supply situation in the German federal states is very different, as a look at the map with the current KBA data in relation to the population shows.

“According to a survey from November 2021, almost 40 percent of electric car drivers are still not particularly satisfied with the charging situation over long distances,” says the ADAC. Criticisms are therefore also too high prices and slow loading. “On the other hand, only 23 percent of electric car drivers are concerned about not being able to reach the next quick-charging station in time.” Market observer Dudenhöffer believes that many Germans are currently gaining their own experience of driving and charging vehicles primarily through rental, leasing and car subscriptions. This might well help alleviate any concerns.

The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) is calling for a holistic concept from the Federal Government on how Germany should implement the major turnaround in transport with the help of electromobility – “from tax legislation, to more ambitious CO2 fleet limits for newly registered cars, to the use of the public space.” Accordingly, the federal government should also make its own areas more accessible for charging infrastructure. Lengthy tendering procedures would show that the state is currently “not making the expansion of the charging offer faster, better or cheaper”.

Ultimately, the reasons why the majority of car drivers are skeptical about electromobility are probably very complex. The costs, risks and benefits of combustion engines are well known, but many things still seem unfamiliar with electric drives. Automobile and energy associations see the expansion of charging stations as an important component of the mobility transition for the step towards everyday suitability. More speed in expansion could be a start – for the necessary loading and touch points.