Ionity fast charging station in Rhineland-Palatinate
A car driver charges her electric car at the Brohltal service area on the A61 motorway. Germany needs more of these charging stations.
(Photo: dpa)
Düsseldorf Volkswagen warns that there will soon no longer be enough charging points for the many new electric cars on Germany’s roads. “The number of new e-vehicles is growing faster than the number of charging points,” said Thomas Ulbrich, Board Member for Electronics at Volkswagen Passenger Cars, in a press conference on Thursday. He spoke of an “impending loading gap” that could be clearly felt as early as next spring.
Volkswagen is satisfied with the current level of expansion of the charging infrastructure. “Everything is still okay,” said Ulbrich. By the end of this year there should be more than 30,000 charging points in Germany, an increase of around 50 percent compared to 2019. But even in a short period of time it could happen more and more frequently that an e-car driver can no longer find a free charging station. “The charging infrastructure is exhausted,” emphasized the Volkswagen Board of Management.
There are currently 14 electric vehicles per charging point in Germany. In the industry, a ratio of 1:10 is actually considered ideal. Due to the strong growth in sales of all-electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV), the ratio will worsen significantly within a few months. Volkswagen warns that the ratio could have reached 1:20 at the beginning of April. Currently, 12,000 new electric vehicles are registered every week, but only 200 charging points are added.
Around 120,000 new, purely battery-electric vehicles had been registered in Germany by the end of October. “That is now twice as much as in the entire past year,” emphasized Ulbrich. The strong public funding for cars makes a particular contribution to this. Because of the threat of fines in the event of excessively high carbon dioxide levels, automakers are now also boosting sales of their new electric models.
Volkswagen has completely converted its plant in Zwickau, Saxony, to the production of electric cars. Currently around 650 ID.3 and ID.4 are produced there every day. By the end of December there should be around 750 cars a day. Next year, Volkswagen plans to produce completely electric cars for the first time in Zwickau. VW had announced an annual production of around 300,000 cars, which would then be significantly more than 1,000 vehicles per day.
Fast charging stations are particularly important
From Volkswagen’s perspective, the expansion of the charging infrastructure in Germany is going far too slowly. If the current pace is maintained, there would be around 125,000 charging stations by the middle of the decade. In 2025, however, three to four million e-vehicles can be expected on German roads, which would require at least 300,000 charging points.
The tightening of the climate targets proposed by the EU (“Green Deal”) is not yet included. Then even more e-cars and correspondingly more charging points would be necessary. “There must be enough contact points for customers,” continues Ulbrich.
Volkswagen now sees politics as responsible for accelerating the expansion of the charging network. The Wolfsburg-based car company rated the first legal changes, such as those in housing law, as positive. In the future, tenants and owners of condominiums would have the right to be able to charge an electric vehicle in their property.
From the end of November on, the state will also subsidize the construction of private charging devices (“wallboxes”) with 900 euros. All in all, it makes it much easier for private users to switch to an electric car, says Volkswagen.
The car company is pushing for many new charging points to be created in public spaces at squares and important streets. This is what the state should now focus on, emphasized Ulbrich.
Fast charging stations are particularly important. The German automobile manufacturers are building their own fast charging network along the highways under the name “Ionity”. But from Volkswagen’s point of view that is not enough. “In the cities in particular, we have to rely more and more on fast charging parks,” said Ulbrich. Every municipality in Germany needs an “E-Mobility Manager”.
The truck industry is also preparing for electrification
In purely mathematical terms, a fast charging station can supply around ten times as many electric cars with electricity as a normal charging station. Fast charging parks are therefore an effective method of expanding the charging infrastructure quickly. It is also a very convenient solution, especially for the growing number of e-car drivers without a private wallbox at home: They can supply their car with sufficient power again within a very short time. Fast charging stations thus perform a similar function to petrol stations.
More and more cities are bringing fast chargers to the centers. In September, an EnBW fast charging park went online in downtown Stuttgart, while Aral put a so-called mobility hub with fast charging stations into operation in Berlin. At the Group’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Volkswagen has ensured that the comparatively small town already has two such public fast-charging parks.
Last week, Hildegard Müller, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), called for a rapid expansion of the charging infrastructure at the Handelsblatt Auto Summit. “Everyone has to deliver now,” explained the VDA President. Electric cars would only find acceptance if they could be charged anywhere and anytime. Simple accounting systems are also essential. “The energy industry is challenged here,” she said.
The charging infrastructure is not just an issue for car manufacturers. The truck industry is also preparing to electrify its fleets. This is why MAN CEO Andreas Tostmann also called for the charging infrastructure to be expanded. In long-distance transport in particular, the availability of charging points is one of the decisive criteria, apart from the cost of the fuel, whether a transport company relies on alternative drives, according to Tostmann.
“In terms of infrastructure, the grid, the electricity network and the amount of electricity available are the keys to success with the high electricity requirements of battery-electric trucks. Since trucks travel across the EU and beyond, an EU-wide approach is needed, ”said Tostmann. MAN is also part of the Volkswagen Group.
More: VDA President Müller: “The priority is to run up the electric drive”