Electric vehicles: Some charging column orphaned

If you want to load your electric car, you should usually quickly find a free charging station. In the second half of 2024, according to the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) in Germany, only around 17 percent of publicly accessible charging points were occupied at the same time. Conversely, it means that many are hardly busy.

The market leader in Germany, the Karlsruhe energy group EnBW, has already throttled its expansion goal. “According to our assessment, there is no bottleneck in the charging infrastructure today,” said board member Dirk Güsewell.

According to BDEW, only every fifth charging point is busy, four out of five less than 17 percent. According to a report by the “Automobilwoche”, around a quarter of the charging points in Germany should not have been used at all. This shows an analysis by the market data specialist ELVAH of real -time data of the charging processes at publicly accessible charging stations.

21 percent more loading points within a year

According to the latest information from the Federal Network Agency, there were 161,686 loading points in Germany in early February. Compared to the stand a year earlier, the estate was a fifth (21 percent) more. 36,278 of which were quick load points. Here, the expansion was driven even more clearly: the increase in one year was 39 percent.

According to a spokeswoman, the operator EnBW plans the size of the locations based on a five -year -old occupancy. Unused charging points are often only “not yet” used charging points, which are used more with increasing vehicle high run.

Factors in planning are, for example, the development of electric car numbers and how much charging infrastructure is already available. The quota of those who load their vehicle at home also play a role.

According to the BDEW, the utilization fluctuates between 3 and 40 percent regionally. In other words, in some regions there are only 3 percent of the charging points on average. 97 percent are free from the perspective of an electric car driver, as a spokeswoman explained.

The BDEW did not provide current information on the regions. In the first half of 2024, the occupancy in the district of Böblingen was particularly high, in the regions of Görlitz, Altmarkkreis Salzwedel and Coburg very low.

Ministry: Avoid waiting times in peak times

“The reasons for the differences in the occupancy are diverse,” said BDEW boss Kerstin Andreae in Berlin. Both the number of e-cars and the accumulation of loading points in a region, the number of private charging options, but also the charging capacity could influence the load.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Transport ordered: “When looking at the average duration of loading points per day, essential aspects of the complex loading behavior are not taken into account.” This also included the loading tariffs offered and the quality of stay at the charging location. “Above all, the use varies greatly during the course of the day, depending on the time of the day, the regional type and seasonal influences.”

From a user perspective, the times of the greatest utilization are particularly important, she explained. A nationwide infrastructure is important to avoid waiting times at charging stations during peak times such as holidays.

Signal required to strengthen the demand of e-cars

“The continuously low level of occupancy shows very clearly that in Germany the expansion of the loading offer is currently growing more than the number of e-cars,” said Andreae. The energy and charging branches have been investing in e-mobility in Germany for years, the private sector competition in building charging points works very successfully.

“What we need in Germany now is a clear signal to strengthen the demand of electric cars,” said Andreae. Important aspects are that the European fleet limit values ​​are retained for CO2 emissions and cheaper vehicle models. ENBW manager Güsewell also emphasized: “In our view, in our view, no flat-rate support for infrastructure expansion, but sustainable incentives for buying electric vehicles is not required for a targeted surge of electromobility.”

The group currently operates more than 6,000 DC speed charging points with an output of up to 400 kilowatts. On average, e-car drivers found one of them every 50 kilometers.

CEO Georg Stamatelopoulos had declared at the end of March that the company reduced the expansion goal for 2030 due to the slowed-on high run of e-mobility from 30,000 to 20,000 charging points. However, EnBW only assumes a temporal shift. “We do not expect any serious change in the long -term trend.”