Electric mobility in Germany: Expansion of charging infrastructure needs to keep up with demand

• Number of electric cars is growing three times faster than public charging infrastructure
• Charging points are needed particularly in metropolitan regions
• Public charging infrastructure is key to promoting acceptance of electric mobility

Electric mobility is a key element for achieving the climate targets and reducing the consumption of fossil fuels in transport. According to a special analysis conducted by KfW Research on the basis of the KfW Energy Transition Barometer, charging infrastructure is the main reason households in Germany are putting off going electric. Against this background it is notable that the fleet of electric cars has recently grown at a much faster rate than charging stations.

“In the past two years the fleet of electric cars on our roads has grown three times faster than the number of public charging points. If this trend continues it could become a problem for the practical feasibility of electric mobility”, said Dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib, Chief Economist of KfW. “Charging infrastructure now needs to keep pace with the dynamic growth of electric mobility in order to make the switch to electric cars attractive. After all, only if the growing charging requirements are met can more powerful incentives to adopt electric vehicles be provided and the climate targets set for the transport sector be achieved.”

Public charging infrastructure in Germany has generally been expanded steadily so far. But the risk here is that charging points provided in sparsely populated regions in particular do not recoup their costs because of relatively limited usage. In metropolitan regions, on the other hand, higher usage rates must be expected as more electric cars hit the road. Public charging points will therefore be needed particularly in densely populated areas. In rural regions, private charging points can increasingly be used instead. As the findings of the KfW Energy Transition Barometer 2021 show, this is explained by the availability of private parking spaces there, among other things. In cities with district status, around 19 % of households with cars responded that they were able to use a suitable parking space of their own for charging, while that rate was 34 % in rural regions, nearly twice as high.

However, the desire for more public charging points is high in all regions in Germany. Under the KfW Energy Transition Barometer, more than 50 % of households stated that they could not yet imagine buying an electric car because of insufficient public charging infrastructure. In cities with district status this was in fact the reason mentioned most often, at around 56 %. The state must therefore further accelerate the expansion of public charging. At the same time, however, it must also remain focused on the interaction with private charging locations and the transition to a more market or needs-based provision of charging infrastructure.

“Current research findings and the responses provided by households under the KfW Energy Transition Barometer show that expanding publicly accessible charging is a key mechanism for achieving broad acceptance and use of electric vehicles. All levels of government must therefore work on expanding public charging infrastructure while taking into account private charging points as substitution options. Balancing the needs of electric vehicle users with the necessary economic viability and cost-efficiency will be crucial to actually achieving the ambitious goal of putting 15 million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030”, added Dr Fritzi Köhler-Geib.

The current study by KfW Research can be retrieved from www.kfw.de/fokus

The dataset:

The current study on electric mobility and charging infrastructure is based on the KfW Energy Transition Barometer 2021. This is a representative survey of around 4,000 private households in Germany on decisions relating to energy supply and energy consumption. It is published annually. Further information on the KfW Energy Transition Barometer can be found at www.kfw.de/energiewendebarometer