The Federal Council approved a new charging station ordinance for electric cars on Friday.
Berlin - The aim is to make this more consumer-friendly, especially for so-called spontaneous charging on the go.
Above all, an obligation contained in the regulation to install credit card readers in newly built charging stations is controversial.
One aim of the new regulation is to avoid that drivers of an electric car first have to go through a cumbersome registration process by local public utilities, for example, before they can charge their vehicle.
The regulation therefore stipulates that charging stations must enable contactless payment by credit or debit card.
In addition, there must be an authentication option for cashless payments at the charging station itself or in its immediate vicinity.
Charging Column Ordinance: Criticism of additional costs and delays
This regulation has met with criticism because operators fear additional costs and delays in expanding the charging station network. Schleswig-Holstein's Economics and Transport Minister Bernd Buchholz (FDP) pointed out in the Federal Council that credit card readers were no longer up to date. Therefore, "it would be wise to bet on doing without it and instead allow payment via PayPal or other online payment services," he pointed out. However, a corresponding amendment was rejected.
The new regulation also provides that newly built charging points must have an interface that enables the transmission of data on the location and occupancy. This should enable consumers to find out, for example, whether a public charging point is currently occupied or free and how it is accessible.
(AFP)