Electric car: Up to €1,000 in savings and hardly any range problems

According to the Ecological-Social Market Economy Forum, Germany's public charging infrastructure already today offers sufficient capacity for considerably more electric vehicles. A new factsheet, prepared on behalf of Climate Alliance Germany and ACE Auto Club Europe, shows that there are over 200,000 public charging points available nationwide. On average, these are only around 17 percent occupied at the same time. In addition, 99 percent of all passenger car trips are easily possible with the ranges of current models.

Infrastructure and Range

Current electric vehicles reach, according to the analysis, around 450 kilometers of range. This would cover nearly the entire everyday driving needs in the passenger-car segment. The often expressed concern about insufficient range would thus lose significance. Also with the charging infrastructure there is no general bottleneck. The existing charging points would, on paper, provide headroom for a considerably higher number of vehicles.

Pricing Structures as a Barrier

As a larger hurdle for consumers, therefore, fewer technical factors are cited, but mainly opaque and hard-to-compare charging prices. In particular for public charging, there is a lack of clear, uniform tariff structures. Among other things, mandatory price displays directly at the charging station and transparent conditions for cross-provider charging are demanded. Price surcharges when using third-party charging points could undermine the acceptance of electric mobility.

In addition, a broader offer of small and mid-sized electric vehicles in the used-car market is seen as an important building block for an accelerated market rollout.