Germany’s charging point network is growing rapidly, outpacing new EV registrations
dpa / Frankfurter Rundschau / Clean Energy Wire
The expansion of Germany's charging network for electric vehicles is making fast progress. The network grew by 45,000 charging points to a total of nearly 146,000 in the year up to July 2024, news agency dpa reported on the basis of figures by car industry association VDA, in an article published by newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. According to the country’s grid agency BNetzA, this included around 31,000 fast chargers with a capacity of at least 22 kilowatts. Both figures are still expected to rise due to late registrations, the article said.
Due to slow sales of electric cars in the country, drivers of battery-powered vehicles are currently getting much better individual access to charging points across the country. VDA said there were 17.3 purely battery-powered EVs or plug-in hybrids per charging station at the start of July, compared to around 21 vehicles per station one year ago.
The car industry lobby group said it still saw a great need for action to further expand the charging network. VDA president Hildegard Müller said the availability of chargers remained a key factor in encouraging people to switch to e-mobility.
Sales of electric cars have slowed considerably in Germany since the government cut subsidies a year ago. In October, just under 35,500 battery-electric vehicles were newly registered, a decline of five percent compared to one year before, according to the latest figures from the country’s transport authority KBA. Their share of all registrations was around 15 percent, a decline of almost two percentage points.
