Charging network for electric cars is growing rapidly

Berlin/Bonn (dpa) - There are increasingly more public charging options available for electric cars. The Federal Network Agency now counts over 140,000 charging points. Therefore, fewer electric vehicles have to share a charging spot now compared to a year ago, as calculated by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Unlike vehicle sales, the dynamism in network expansion is likely to continue.

How many charging points are there?

The latest data from the Federal Network Agency as of September 1 show 145,857 charging points. Of these, 31,063 are fast charging points with a capacity of at least 22 kilowatts. However, the actual number is likely significantly higher, because only facilities are displayed where the operator has completed the registration process and agreed to publication, according to the Federal Network Agency. It is also likely that there will be numerous subsequent reports, based on experience.

How significant is the growth?

This is not so easy to answer, because the Federal Network Agency repeatedly adjusts previous years' comparison values significantly upwards in retrospect due to the reporting of additional charging stations. If you take a current figure that contains few or no subsequent reports and compare it to last year's figure that includes many subsequent reports, this distorts the result. To prevent this, the VDA uses figures reported a year ago as comparison values for its calculations. In this way, both figures are missing subsequent reports, making the comparison fairer. Thus, from July 1, 2023, to July 1, 2024, the association calculates an increase of around 45,000 charging points. This would be faster than recently. However, the figure is only an approximation. If only the currently reported figures were used for both points in time, there would be a considerably slower growth of about 33,500 charging points over the course of a year - which would likely be significantly underestimated.

 

How is the charging network developing compared to the electric car inventory?

The Federal Motor Transport Authority reports 2.48 million purely battery-powered electric cars and plug-in hybrids by mid-year. On average, this means there are 17.3 electric vehicles per publicly accessible charging point. This is significantly better than a year ago when the VDA's calculation method showed around 21 e-cars. Contributing to this improvement, besides the relatively rapid growth of the charging network, is the fact that the electric vehicle inventory has recently grown much more slowly.

Where is the network the densest?

That depends on how density is defined. The most charging stations per square kilometer are naturally found in cities. However, there is also a correspondingly higher demand here because there are more electric cars. An alternative is to compare the inventory of e-cars with that of charging points. Here, the best supply of all federal states is found in Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Thuringia. According to the VDA, there are 11.8, 11.9, and 12.0 electric cars per charging point in those areas. However, their good performance in this category is also due to the fact that they are among the laggards in Germany concerning the share of electric cars. The worst ratios are found in Saarland with 24.3 electric vehicles per charging point and Rhineland-Palatinate with 21.7. 

The ranking looks somewhat different if one compares not the electric car inventory, but the total vehicle inventory with the number of charging points. In other words, assessing how well-prepared the state is for a surge in electromobility. In this case, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, and Hamburg lead - partly because they are not penalized for their above-average e-car shares in this calculation. Saarland remains at the bottom - but then behind Saxony-Anhalt and Rhineland-Palatinate.