“Late, very late”

German carmakers' plan to set up a nationwide fast charging network for electric cars is “no reason to cheer”, Peter Fahrenholz writes in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Investing in transportation infrastructure is a public duty,” Fahrenholz writes, and its absence “a political failure.” Just as the state funds airports, roads and railways, it should have financed a functional charging network some time ago “to facilitate the breakthrough of e-mobility,” Fahrenholz says, adding that the industry’s sole task is to provide the technology. If Germany is to move forward on decarbonised mobility it must set up an extensive network of charging stations, especially in the inner cities, Fahrenholz writes.

Read the article in German here.

For background on the Energiewende and mobility, see the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector.