Germany earmarks €900m in subsidies for e-charging points

The German transport ministry says it will soon launch two funding programmes to help households and companies in building charging stations with their own power supply.

Germany is to earmark up to €900m in subsidies to expand electric-vehicle charging stations for households and companies, the transport ministry has said. Europe’s biggest economy has about 90,000 public charging points and aims to have 1m by 2030 in hopes of boosting growth in electro-mobility as it targets carbon neutrality by 2045.

Germany had around 1.2m fully electric vehicles on its roads by the end of April, well below its goal of 15m by 2030, data from federal motor authority KBA showed. High prices, limited range and a lack of charging stations, especially in rural areas, are seen as the main reasons for the lag in electric vehicle sales.

The transport ministry said it will soon launch two funding programmes to help households and companies in building charging stations with their own power supply. Up to €500m in subsidies will be available from the autumn to promote electricity self-supply at private residential buildings, with the prerequisite that residents already own an electric car, the ministry said.

From next summer, an extra €400m will be earmarked for companies that want to build fast-charging infrastructure for commercial cars and trucks.

The German government in October approved a plan to spend €6.3bn over three years to rapidly scale up the number of electric vehicle charging stations.

Reuters