Number of electric car charging points in Germany rises 30% since start of the year

Germany’s network of charging points for electric cars is growing rapidly, according to utility association BDEW. “As of 1 October, 113,112 public charging points with a total of 5.2 gigawatts (GW) of installed charging capacity are available,” the lobby group said in a press release. “This is an increase of more than 30 percent in the number of charging points since the beginning of the year and an increase of more than 40 percent in charging capacity.” BDEW said the charging capacity available to electric car drivers already far exceeded the EU target, which specifies 1.3 kW of installed charging capacity per battery electric vehicle and 0.8 kW per plug-in hybrid, which would result in a total of 2.23 GW for the electric cars currently on Germany's roads. “This means that there is already more than twice as much charging capacity installed in Germany as required by European specifications,” BDEW said.

The German government aims to have 15 million electric passenger cars on Germany's roads by 2030, and wants 1 million charging points by that date. The BDEW has said in the past that the target for charging points is outdated because it does not take into account the shorter charging times of modern vehicles, and that installed charging capacity is more relevant. There are also increasing doubts over whether Germany can reach its target for electric cars.