Berlin continues to lead German cities with most e-car charging stations
Clean Energy Wire
Berlin has expanded its lead as the city with the most electric car charging stations in Germany, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). The German capital last year increased the number of charging stations by 70 percent, from 974 in December 2019 to currently 1,694. Berlin is closely followed by Munich with 1,310 charging stations, Hamburg (1,226) and Stuttgart (616). Wolfsburg is a new entry into the BDEW’s charging station registry top 10 at No. 5 with 467 stations. The city, home to Volkswagen, saw a 1,500 percent increase in a one-year period, up from 28 stations in December 2019. The dynamic expansion is also seen among the states: Bavaria has recorded an increase of almost 50 percent since December 2019 and is currently in first place with 8,325 stations, followed by Baden-Württemberg, up 70 percent to 7,047 stations and North Rhine-Westphalia with a total of 6,164 charging stations.
The slow progress of charging station installations in Germany has been seen as a bottleneck for the rollout of millions of e-cars over the next decade. While the take-up of electric vehicles in Germany had been slow, new government incentives have led to a sharp increase in new registrations. The German transport ministry is also set to invest nearly 2 billion euros to expand Germany’s charging infrastructure for electric vehicles along the nation’s Autobahns.
