Lack of charging points could slow roll-out of e-mobility in Germany, study warns

A lack of charging points in German cities could hamper the roll-out of electric mobility in the coming years, according to a study by the country's energy agency (dena) and consultancy Prognos. Germany has potential for 8 to 12 million private charging points in single homes or buildings with two flats, but only 0.45 to 1.8 million charging points can be installed in buildings with three or more flats, resulting in a shortfall of 0.6 to 1.1 million charging points by 2030 depending on the scenario, the study found. "For dense residential areas with multi-family buildings, especially in regions with strong purchasing power, a concentrated and intensified development of the publicly accessible charging infrastructure is therefore necessary to enable the politically desired sales of electric vehicles," dena said in a press release. The agency’s head, Andreas Kuhlmannn, added that: "The use of subsidies should therefore be geared to creating an additional, publicly accessible charging infrastructure for all sections of the population in order to avoid a bottleneck in the availability of charging infrastructure and vehicle sales.”

Germany plans to have seven to ten million electric cars on the roads by 2030. The country's National Platform Future of Mobility (NPM) expects that 60 to 85 percent of all e-car charging will happen at private points initially, and 15 to 40 percent at publicly accessible charging points.