Almost 40 percent more public fast-charging points

10.03.2025

Source: E & M powernews

The Federal Network Agency has published regular figures on the public charging infrastructure.

According to the Federal Network Agency, as of February 1, 2025, the agency's register of charging points showed 125,408 normal charging points and 36,278 fast charging points. The total available charging capacity amounted to 6.11 million kW. The figures refer to charging points that were in operation on the reporting date.

Compared to February 2024, this represents an increase of 18,390 normal charging points (+17%) and 10,208 fast charging points (+39%). The number of available charging points increased the most in relative terms in the high power classes: The category between 149 and 299 kW went up by 45 percent to 13,944 and ultra-fast chargers from 300 kW by 47 percent to 7,399.

The authority also differentiates the publicly accessible charging infrastructure by federal state. Bavaria is in the lead here with 31,463 charging points (24,343 normal charging points and 7,120 fast charging points), followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 31,077 (24,441 normal charging points and 6,636 fast charging points) and Baden-Württemberg with 27,778 charging points.

What is considered "public"?

The statistics result from the obligation to report publicly accessible normal and fast charging points, which is anchored in the Charging Point Ordinance. Against the background of determining greenhouse gas quotas in the transport sector, the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Environment Agency set out in a "joint clarification" and guidelines in 2022 what is to be considered a public charging point. According to this, a charging point is public if it is located in a place that is accessible to the general public and is also marked as such.

It does not matter whether it is located on public or private property. This means that charging points in supermarket parking lots or parking garages, for example, are included. Charging points for company employees or hotel guests, for example, are not included. In addition to public accessibility, there are also a number of minimum technical requirements that must be met.

Orlen wants to expand the charging network in Germany

The authority also lists the largest operators of public charging infrastructure. These are EnBW, Eon, Tesla, EWE and Mercedes-Benz. Although the German subsidiary of the Polish Orlen Group is not one of them, it intends to significantly expand its charging infrastructure activities in Germany. Under the Orlen Charge brand, around 150 new charging points are to be added to the existing ones by the end of the current year. By the end of 2026, more than 200 fast-charging points with charging capacities between 150 and 400 kW are to be in operation at at least 30 locations in Germany. To this end, the company has concluded a cooperation agreement with May & Co. Holding, which specializes in real estate and investments.

To date, Orlen has mainly been present in Germany with its 600 or so conventional filling stations, which also operate under the brand name "Star".

Bavaria: subsidies for non-public charging points

There is also news from southern Germany regarding the expansion of e-mobility. On March 6, the Bavarian state government announced that it would "consistently focus on expanding the charging infrastructure for electric road freight transport". The Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) explained what this means in figures in a statement from his office: In the second call for the funding program for non-publicly accessible charging points, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs is providing 5 million euros for 43 projects with more than 110 charging points.

"In this round, we can support the construction of a total of 113 charging points and thus trigger total investments of over 16 million euros," said Aiwanger. Funding will be provided for the procurement and construction of DC fast-charging points that are not accessible to the public and are specially designed for electric transport vehicles.

The Federal Network Agency's data on public charging infrastructure is available for download.

Author: Fritz Wilhelm