Erni's electrifying tricks: Pay attention to the charging rates!

Ms. Zündel was on her way to a business meeting in Munich and used the meeting time to charge her car at the nearby public charging station. But when she tried to activate the charging point through the provider's app, she found that the app wasn't working. After multiple attempts and repeatedly seeing the message "Unfortunately, something went wrong," she angrily opened the app of a third-party provider to start the charging. At least that worked.

The major providers charge up to a 300% surcharge

To her surprise, however, she had to pay 69 cents per kWh instead of 45 cents per kWh—24 cents more per kWh than with the original provider. "This is an absolute outrage," she thought in disbelief. The prices for charging electric cars at public charging stations in Germany are already unreasonably high. A recent study by Lichtblick revealed the very obvious reason for this: the monopoly position of the major providers. The operators dictate the charging prices and charge competitors a surcharge of up to 300 percent. A systematic discrimination against new or smaller providers—at the expense of users and the mobility transition.

Ms. Zündel is outraged—climate-friendly driving is not only unsupported but almost sabotaged. Charging at the public charging station during rapid charging is up to 140 percent more expensive than at home. Prices are being driven up senselessly, without any consideration for consumers.