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Rare sight: fast charging station for electric cars at the Samerberg service area on the A8 motorway
Photo: Rolf Poss / imago images
The development of a quick charging network on German autobahns is progressing slowly.
At the approximately 400 locations of the largest operator, Autobahn Tank & Rast GmbH, there are only 224 charging stations with connections of at least 150 kW for electric cars.
There are a total of 715 charging points, so an average of only around three per service area.
Even with less fast charging stations, there are still far from enough connections.
A total of 1,359 charging points for electric cars are available at 358 Tank & Rast locations.
There are a total of 55,205 publicly accessible charging points (as of February 1st).
This emerges from figures compiled by the Federal Ministry of Transport at the request of left-wing politician Victor Perli.
"Even with the new Minister of Transport, the fast-charging network is hardly making any progress," criticizes Perli.
»The virtual monopoly of Tank & Rast on the autobahns is hampering the entire development.
There are still no fast charging points at many service areas, although the federal government is making almost all areas available for this purpose practically free of charge.«
On motorways, the number of fast charging stations is particularly important so that drivers can cover long distances without major delays compared to a car with a combustion engine.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has taken on a “master plan for charging infrastructure” as a particularly urgent task, and his party friend Daniela Kluckert is responsible for this as parliamentary state secretary.
In its coalition agreement, the traffic light coalition has set a target of one million charging points by 2030.
The focus should be on fast charging points.
The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) also warns that a lack of speed in the expansion of the charging infrastructure threatens "to become a decisive bottleneck for the ramp-up of electromobility".
The VDA published a position paper on Friday.
The industry demands that the number of charging stations grow just as quickly as the number of electric cars.
The expansion must precede demand by two years.
A “booster funding” of five billion euros should be used for this by 2025.
VDA President Hildegard Müller called for a “loading summit” “soon”.
However, the energy sector is also calling for a slower pace.
EnBW boss Frank Mastiaux told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" in February, "We don't necessarily need a charging station on every corner." He fears that the market will be slowed down if the investments are not worthwhile because too many built columns are underused would.
Fast charging also increases the number of charging points required.
The energy group EnBW is Germany's largest operator of charging stations, it is majority owned by the green-black governed state of Baden-Württemberg and municipalities.
