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E-car filling station: It's about attracting customers
Photo: Jochen Eckel / IMAGO
The expansion of the e-charging network is still lagging behind the growing number of electric cars.
At the beginning of 2021, there were still 14 e-cars at a charging point, but according to figures from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), it was 23 most recently.
On Thursday, Mercedes-Benz also announced its own network with 10,000 charging points worldwide by the end of the decade.
The Stuttgart-based company wants to invest a single-digit billion amount.
“We don't want to sit and wait for it to be built.
That's why we're setting up a global fast-charging network ourselves," said Mercedes boss Ola Källenius.
At first it was thought that other players such as energy companies would meet the demand, said Head of Technology Markus Schäfer.
"But that didn't happen."
For comparison: The US carmaker Tesla claims to operate 40,000 high-performance charging stations worldwide – but the majority of these are still reserved for its own customers, even if the company holds out the prospect of opening them up.
The VW Group wants to set up a good 45,000 quick charging points worldwide with partners by the end of 2025.
Many collaborations
Mercedes did not say how many charging points will be created in Germany.
But one thing is clear: for the global expansion goals - the federal government alone is planning one million publicly accessible plugs by 2030 - the plans of the Stuttgart-based company are at best a drop in the bucket.
Källenius made no secret of this in conversation with journalists.
Rather, it is about attracting more Mercedes customers.
They should benefit, for example, from preferred use by means of a reservation.
The charging networks that the car companies have secured through cooperation are far larger.
Around one million charging points are available worldwide for Mercedes drivers, said Källenius.
The Digital Charging Solutions network (DCS), which goes back to a BMW initiative and in which Mercedes and the oil company BP are also involved, claims to have over 400,000 charging points in Europe in Japan.
Together with BMW, VW, Ford and Hyundai, Mercedes operates the Ionity consortium, which has so far set up 480 fast charging stations in Germany with a charging capacity of up to 350 kilowatts.
The car manufacturer Stellantis also started to set up its fast charging network in Italy in 2021.
In addition to the Atlante project, which is limited to southern Europe, there is a cooperation with the provider TheF Charging to set up a network with more than 15,000 locations and two million parking spaces by 2025.
Supply must precede demand
"The expansion of the charging infrastructure is a joint task that can only succeed if everyone involved supports it and takes responsibility," explained VDA President Hildegard Müller.
Everyone has to make their contribution - and of course the automotive industry is also involved.
A look at the figures shows that the government's goals are still a long way off.
According to data from the Federal Network Agency from the beginning of November 2022, the number of charging points grew by around 17,000 to a total of 72,000 within a year.
If things continued at this rate, the target of one million charging points would not be reached until 2077, in purely mathematical terms.
In order to become faster, the cabinet decided in October on a "master plan for charging infrastructure" and wants to spend 6.3 billion euros on it.
That at least shows that the federal government is aware of the task, according to the ADAC.
The automobile club assessed the pace of expansion in 2022 as comparatively positive.
After all, the number of charging points in the past year has kept pace with the number of newly registered e-cars, praised VDA boss Müller.
But: "Supply would have to outpace demand so that people's trust in e-mobility can continue to grow." Germany is still a long way from that.
The fast chargers in particular must therefore continue to move forward at high speed.
mik/dpa-AFX
