VDA e-charging network ranking: difference between charging infrastructure and demand has grown again

Germany still has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to expanding the publicly accessible charging infrastructure for electric cars (e-cars). This is shown by the evaluation published today by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the so-called VDA e-charging network ranking.

There are 80,541 publicly accessible charging points in Germany (source: Bundesnetzagentur as of January 1, 2023). This means that there is currently one publicly accessible charging point for an average of 23 e-cars in Germany. It turns out that the difference between supply and demand is growing. In the last VDA e-charging network ranking, as of April 1, 2022, there was still one charging point for 22 e-cars and on May 1, 2021 for 17 e-cars.

While an average of around 68,000 e-cars per month were newly registered in Germany in the past twelve months, the number of publicly accessible charging points grew by only around 540 per week. In order to reach the target of 1 million charging points by 2030, which the federal government expressly stated in their coalition agreement, around 2,200 new charging points per week would be necessary. The speed of expansion would therefore have to be quadrupled in order to achieve the goal. If the current pace of expansion is not increased, there would be just around 310,000 charging points in Germany in 2030 - i.e. less than a third of the target.

In addition, there is still not a single public charging point in around half (46%) of all 10,773 municipalities in Germany. The situation is even more serious when it comes to the fast charging infrastructure, which is particularly important for the success of e-mobility and shortens charging breaks: In more than 80% of all municipalities there is not a single fast charging point.*

Concerning the charging capacity that is available per electric car, there has also been a downward curve since the ramp-up of electromobility accelerated in 2020: just 1.3kW were attributable to one electric car on January 1, 2023. On January 1, 2020, at 3.5kW, it was still a good two and a half times the charging capacity. This approach also shows that the expansion of the publicly accessible charging infrastructure is not keeping up with the growth in the number of e-cars.

Hildegard Müller, President of the Association of the Automotive Industry: "Fortunately, there are more and more electric cars on Germany’s roads, there are already around 1.9 million and for the current year we expect around 765,000 new electric cars to be registered. It is important that the expansion of charging infrastructure keeps up with this development, but it is still lagging behind. The expansion of the charging infrastructure is one of the most urgent infrastructure tasks for Germany, but has so far been neglected too much. Germany now finally needs more speed and determination in expansion so that the federal government’s ambitious goals – 15 million e-cars and 1 million public charging points by 2030 – can actually be achieved."

In order to increase the speed of expansion, faster planning and approval processes are key. "We need to accelerate planning when expanding the charging infrastructure, and as the automotive industry, we have made concrete proposals for this.

One thing is clear: people will only switch to e-mobility if there is a comprehensive and efficient charging infrastructure. Only then consumer confidence in e-mobility will continue to grow," said the VDA President.

Müller: "The power grid plays a key role in the success of e-mobility, but there is a lot of catching up to do here. The power grids must now be expanded faster and anticipatory based on future needs. As agreed in the coalition committee, this forward-looking expansion of the power grids must now also be anchored in law."

The VDA President is also in favor of consistent monitoring of the charging infrastructure expansion by the federal government. "Only those who regularly check where a project stands can take corrective action in time if they are likely to miss their target. It is therefore right that an interministerial workgroup was set up to deal with the topic of charging infrastructure. The workgroup must now insist on the implementation of the measures and compliance with the deadlines provided for in the federal government's Master Plan Charging Infrastructure II."

The results of the VDA e-charging network ranking

The VDA e-charging network ranking is a statistical evaluation based on official data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority and the Federal Network Agency**. What is reported here is included in the evaluation, which is divided into three areas:

The T value indicates how many e-cars are sharing one publicly accessible charging point. There is a new leader here: the Lower Saxony city of Emden. Here there are only 5.9 e-cars per charging point. In the last VDA-E charging network ranking, Emden took second place, which is now occupied by the former leader, the district of Groß-Gerau (Hesse). The city of Heilbronn (Baden-Württemberg) again took third place.

A look at the federal states: In Saxony, 14.7 e-cars share one charging point. Saxony again has the best ratio of charging points to e-cars and can thus defend its top position among the federal states. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which was able to move up two places, follows in second place, while Thuringia is again in third place. This is followed by: Saxony-Anhalt, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Brandenburg and Berlin. The federal states mentioned have a better T value than the national average. Then follow: North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland.

The differences between the federal states are large, but of course there are also structural differences between them: In the leading Saxony, 14.7 e-cars share one charging point, in Saarland 33.9 e-cars - more than twice as many.

The A value represents the basic attractiveness of the charging network in the district or in the city. To do this, the number of publicly accessible charging points is set in relation to all cars registered in the district or in the city, regardless of their drive type. The value therefore shows how attractive the district or city is for switching to electromobility. In the A-value ranking, Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony) was once again able to defend its top spot. Ingolstadt (Bavaria) made up one place and is now in second place. The city of Regensburg (Bavaria) is in third place.

The S value shows how many e-cars statistically have to share a quick charging point. A statistical evaluation at the level of the federal states makes sense here because of the still relatively weak distribution. This evaluation shows that the national average is 141.7 for the S value. To put it another way: In Germany, there are an average of 141.7 e-cars per fast charging point.

The first four places are occupied by Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony. In these federal states, a maximum of 80 e-cars share a fast charging point. In Brandenburg, in fifth place, there are already 102 e‑cars that come to a quick charging point. Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Hamburg follow.

In the Hanseatic city, 151 e-cars share one fast charging point, in Bremen, which follows, there are already 183 e-cars. Next: North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Saarland. It turns out that the differences between the federal states are also large when it comes to the fast-charging infrastructure. In Thuringia, around 62 e-cars share one fast charging point, in the last-placed Saarland there are more than three times as many with a good 210.

By the way: the expansion of charging points since the last VDA e-charging network ranking has been particularly dynamic in the Böblingen district, where 864 charging points were added, in the city of Munich, where 801 new charging points were added, and in Stuttgart. 742 new charging points were set up there.

Data sheets are available for download for the respective federal states with the frontrunners of all 13 non-city states as well as rankings of the federal states for all three values with further data details:

1.         Ranking of the federal states by T-value, A-value and S-value

2.         The leaders of the respective federal states

 

* According to the definition of the Federal Network Agency, a fast charging point offers a charging capacity of more than 22 kW.

** The VDA charging network ranking is based on data from the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) on the number of charging points in German rural districts and cities as of January 1, 2023 and the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) on the number of cars and electric cars, also on the Reference date January 1, 2023. More recent data on the number of cars is not available.