In mid-February 2017, the European Commission approved the federal government’s incentive program for establishing a charging infrastructure in Germany. This EUR 300 million project has been open to applications since March 1. In late April last year, the German chancellor agreed with carmakers to provide a tax-funded budget for charging points on top of the incentive money for electric vehicles. It provides EUR 200 million for setting up 10,000 charging stations across the country and EUR 100 million for a minimum of 5,000 fast chargers (see HZwei issue from July 2016).
Incentives are granted for the grid connection of charging points, their construction and assembly. To receive funding, applicants must make the station accessible to the public and source electricity from renewable energies. A supplementary program is the one for electric charging stations themselves, with the objective of establishing a network at freeways. However, the Green Party’s expert on transportation, Stephan Kühn, said that both programs would not guarantee an “extensive charging infrastructure without blind spots.” He also thought that the expansion was moving along much too slowly.
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