Full Throttle or Emergency Brake? The E-Mobility Decision of Municipal Energy Providers

Customer Proximity and Trust

The original commitments of municipal energy providers in the electromobility market are currently being criticized mainly for their lack of profitability (60% of the companies surveyed). The most interesting customer groups for public utilities and regional energy providers are those groups that positively evaluate the spatial proximity of their provider. As the study data show, public utilities and regional energy providers can offer corresponding customer-specific solutions. They particularly benefit from their localized expertise, both in the provision of charging infrastructure (CPO) and in services related to electromobility (eMSP). The task will gain further relevance in the coming years, among other reasons, because to achieve the target set by the federal government, around 900,000 public charging stations will need to be newly built by the year 2030.

Marion Schulte, Global Head of Utilities, Postal and Transportation at BearingPoint: "Even today, it should be mainly about securing the most attractive locations for charging points in cities and municipalities for public utilities and regional energy providers. With regard to the overall strategic direction, offers for e-mobility must now and in the future be operated either highly professionally or the company withdraws completely from the market. Those who stay need to be in for the long haul. Persistence could pay off in the end. We see the currently declining registration numbers for electric vehicles as a temporary trend. On the provider side, current figures show that investments in charging infrastructure have amortized after eight to ten years."

Improvement of Operational Processes

In addition to the time component, important levers on the provider side concern the improvement of existing operational processes. According to the study, innovation activities divided into various responsibilities at the energy provider should be aligned with and centrally managed by a company-wide innovation strategy, if such a uniform strategy already exists. The topics of digitization and automation also need to be addressed. For the latter point, this includes, for example, the consistent use of AI, robotic process automation, or workflow management systems. But public utilities can also score points in the future with their classical virtues, as the study authors emphasize.

"Regionality is the strength of public utilities. They know their own sales and network area and thus the target market for e-mobility products. They are perceived by the local population as reliable providers of innovative services. In the future, this trust should be leveraged in the development of specialized offers. Public utilities will also need these if they want to assert themselves against financially strong, large energy companies in the long term. Those providers who bring the necessary endurance will benefit in the long run from the ramp-up of electromobility," concludes Marion Schulte.

About the Study

For the Public Utilities Study 2024, 37 companies in the energy sector (38% at energy supply companies, 62% at public utilities) and 1,011 private end customers were surveyed. These were part of the survey to compare their individual expectations with the provided offer. Expert interviews with decision-makers on the energy provider side were conducted to analyze future-proof growth markets for public utilities. A concluding BearingPoint expert workshop analyzed the results of the survey.

You can find the study and the infographic "The Future of Energy Providers in the E-Mobility Market" in our attachment.