Friday, July 9th, 2021
Density is increasing – Bavaria ahead
E-car drivers can find charging stations more easily
Anyone who is thinking of buying an electric car has to think about where to charge the new vehicle. Public stations are still rare, but they are becoming more common. According to the latest data, there is now a decent infrastructure, especially in Bavaria, but also in other federal states.
Germany’s charging network for electric cars is gradually becoming a little denser. In rural areas in particular, it is often still difficult to find a public pillar in the vicinity – but overall the offer improved noticeably by the end of May, according to the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW). The most recently available data from the “charging station register” also show better coverage for some small municipalities beyond the large centers.
In the overall comparison of the territorial states, Bavaria again performed best in the latest survey. On average, there are around 64.1 freely accessible charging points for every 100,000 inhabitants in the Free State. The absolute number here is 8412, an increase of more than 30 percent compared to spring 2020. The neighboring Baden-Württemberg is very close behind in terms of the density of public charging points with just under 64, an increase of over 40 percent to 7099 was recorded here. It is followed by Lower Saxony, where statistically there are 51 points for 100,000 people – with 4079 possibilities to charge the e-car while on the move. The latter is Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with an average of 22.3 charging points.
The density values are of course higher in large cities. As a federal state, Hamburg has a slightly higher value (65.7) than Bavaria, the first in area. Berlin and Bremen reported values of 49 and 41.5, respectively. According to the data, however, comparatively good offers are also increasingly being found in smaller municipalities, according to the association. To this end, he introduced new categories that should allow comparisons to be made better when there are small numbers of residents – although there are then only absolute values.
Payment systems are still very diverse
In the group of “small towns and rural communities” under 20,000 people, Schwieberdingen in Baden-Württemberg performed best in May with 70 charging points. It followed – also in the southwest – Ilsfeld (52) and Giengen an der Brenz (40). Bad Säckingen and the Bavarian Holzkirchen (39 each) came fourth, while Unterföhring near Munich and Timmendorfer Strand in Schleswig-Holstein reported 38 charging points. These municipalities have “future-proofed” the charging infrastructure for electric cars, it said.
Among the medium-sized cities (20,000 to 100,000 inhabitants), the association for Zwickau in Saxony reported the highest number with 112 charging points. Behind came the Hessian Baunatal (105) and Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg (93). Wolfsburg (493), Regensburg (282) and Karlsruhe (260) were the top three cities with a population of between 100,000 and 500,000. The BDEW also published relative density values for this size: The VW city of Wolfsburg with 396 charging points per 100,000 people and Regensburg, where BMW operates a large plant, remain ahead with an average of 184.
Among the cities classified as metropolises with more than half a million inhabitants, Munich took first place in terms of store network density (89), followed by Stuttgart (81) and Essen (73). In absolute numbers, the picture is turning in favor of Berlin, where there are now 1,799 public charging points – over 700 more than about a year ago. The ranks two and three are occupied by Munich (1327) and Hamburg (1214). There was also growth here.
BDEW managing director Kerstin Andreae emphasized that parallel to the “pleasant” expansion of the network, charging stations must become more economical for the operators and more attractive for the users. The stations should be equipped with digital payment systems rather than with readers for “e-fuel cards” that differ from one another in many ways.
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