Germany

Major Developments in 2020

New Registrations

The year 2022 marked a turning point for the spread of electric vehicles (EVs) in Germany. Almost half a million battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were newly registered. As a result, there are now over one million battery electric vehicles in the German fleet. Together with plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), BEVs accounted for almost a third of newly registered passenger car EVs in 2022. Considering this growth, there is a need to provide charging infrastructure to facilitate market uptake of electric vehicles. As of January 2023, in Germany, there are 80,541 charging points, of which 67,288 are fast and 13,253 are rapid charging points, at a total of 42,293 publicly accessible charging facilities. This is equivalent to an increase of nearly 35% compared to the number of charging facilities in 2020.

Changing Policy

The Ministry of Transport presented an immediate action program in July 2022 to meet the climate targets in the transport sector. The program includes further incentives for the ramp-up of electromobility, in order to meet the target of 15 Mio BEVs in Germany’s car fleet by 2030, by accelerating the expansion of the charging infrastructure through the “Masterplan Ladeinfrastruktur II” (master plan charging infrastructure II). Funding of €6.3 billion is projected for the expansion to one million public charging points in Germany by 2030.

Outlook

Germany continued to work closely with other EU member states to develop battery and fuel cell production. According to the plans of automotive manufacturers and suppliers in Germany, a total of around 400GWh of battery capacity per year is to be built up by 2030 [2]. The Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) "Hy2Tec" on hydrogen technologies and systems was approved in July 2022. It includes a total of €5.4 billion in public funding and has mobilized €8.8 billion in private funding. Among the selected projects is the construction of a large fuel cell production plant by Cellcentric, which shows that the funding program also focuses on hydrogen applications in the transport sector.