2. Call for Proposals for the “Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles in Bavaria 2026–2029” Program

Eligible applicants are businesses engaged in commercial activities that have their headquarters, branch office, or place of business in the Free State of Bavaria and are active in the field of freight transport. This explicitly includes not only traditional logistics companies but also all businesses that transport goods of any kind on public roads using their own fleet of vehicles.

No, you must wait until you receive the grant award notice. Contracts, orders, or purchases are eligible for funding only if they were placed or commissioned within the project period defined in the grant award notice. Starting work before the project period begins will result in the loss of funding. Non-binding quotes, planning, or ineligible services are exempt from this rule.

No, this call for proposals only provides funding for new charging stations.

No. It may be helpful to obtain non-binding quotes in advance in order to estimate the expected project costs. This information is also requested in the application. However, proof of these quotes is not yet required when submitting the application.

In accordance with the funding guidelines, the provisions of the Bavarian Budget Code and the relevant administrative regulations must be observed, in particular Chapter 3 of the General Supplementary Provisions for Project Grants (ANBest-P).

The definition of an SME is based on Annex I of the AGVO. According to this definition, SMEs are enterprises that employ fewer than 250 people and either have an annual turnover of no more than 50 million EUR or an annual balance sheet total of no more than 43 million EUR. Affiliated companies are not considered SMEs if the group as a whole exceeds the criteria for SMEs. Consequently, a corresponding increase in the funding rate cannot be granted.

The definition of “affiliated companies” is based on Article 3 of Annex I to the AGVO. According to this, “affiliated companies” are companies that exercise a controlling influence over one another through, for example, financial, legal, or personnel ties.

No, electric vehicles do not need to be owned or on order. A purchase can also be made at a later date. However, applications are ranked based on the projected environmental benefit per euro of funding, within the limits of available funding (see “How Are Applications Evaluated?”). In this context, environmental benefit refers to the amount of fuel saved through the operation of the applicant’s newly purchased and registered (no more than 12 months before or no more than 6 months after the subsidized charging infrastructure becomes operational) electric freight vehicles. Electric vehicles that have already been successfully considered in the past for environmental relief or diesel savings under the Bavarian funding guideline “Charging Infrastructure Not Open to the Public for Electric Road Freight Transport in Bavaria” may not be included again.

Applications are not processed primarily in the order in which they are submitted (no first-come, first-served basis). In accordance with the AGVO, applications are evaluated in descending order based on the “projected environmental benefit per euro of funding.” In this context, the applicant must specify how many liters of fuel are expected to be saved over the next three years through the use of newly purchased electric vehicles (purchased no more than 12 months before or no more than 6 months after the subsidized charging infrastructure is put into operation). This calculation should be based on the amount of fuel that the previously used internal-combustion vehicles would be expected to consume over the corresponding distances. The key figures required for the calculation (type and number of new electric commercial vehicles to be purchased, annual mileage, and average fuel consumption of the previously used diesel vehicles) are requested as part of the application process, and the ranking parameter is automatically calculated by the system. The calculated fuel savings from these newly commissioned vehicles over the minimum three-year operating period are then divided by the requested grant amount to obtain the ranking parameter “environmental benefit per euro of grant funding.”

Diesel savings can essentially be calculated using the following three parameters:

• Number of newly purchased or newly registered electric road freight vehicles, up to 12 months before or up to 6 months after the subsidized charging infrastructure becomes operational
• Annual mileage of the electric vehicles to be purchased
• Average fuel consumption (in liters of diesel per 100 km) of the vehicles to be replaced by the electric vehicles

Calculation Example

In this example, the subsidized charging infrastructure is put into operation on July 1, 2028, and on February 1, 2028 (within the permitted timeframe of up to 12 months before or up to 6 months after the subsidized charging infrastructure is put into operation), four new company-owned electric trucks are purchased (annual mileage of 80,000 km). The diesel trucks previously in use had an average fuel consumption of 25 liters per 100 kilometers.

On December 31, 2028, two additional electric trucks will be newly registered (also within the permitted timeframe of up to 12 months before or up to 6 months after the subsidized charging infrastructure becomes operational).

Based on this data, the following savings would result:

• Year 1 (July 1, 2028, to June 30, 2029): (4 vehicles * 80,000 km * 25 L/100 km) + (2 vehicles * 40,000 km * 25 L/100 km) = 100,000 liters
• Year 2 (July 1, 2029, to June 30, 2030): 6 vehicles * 80,000 km * 25 L/100 km = 120,000 liters
• Year 3 (July 1, 2030 to June 30, 2031): 6 vehicles * 80,000 km * 25 l/100 km = 120,000 liters
• Total diesel savings during the three-year minimum operating period: 340,000 liters

If, in this example, 6 charging points and a medium-voltage connection were to be newly installed for the 6 new electric commercial vehicles, and a grant of €195,000 were applied for to cover these costs, the ranking parameter would be calculated as follows:
340,000 liters of diesel / €195,000.00 = 1.74 liters of diesel saved per euro of funding

Note:
If only half of the stated amount were applied for under the grant program, the ranking parameter would be twice as high (3.48 liters of diesel saved per euro of grant funding), thereby significantly increasing the likelihood of receiving a grant approval notice.

Under this call for proposals, an applicant may submit multiple proposals, each with a maximum grant amount of €250,000. Across all proposals, an applicant may receive a maximum of €500,000 in funding under this call. Affiliated companies that also submit proposals are considered a single applicant.

The processing time for reviewing, evaluating, and ranking the applications received typically takes 2 to 4 weeks. Immediately afterward, the corresponding rejection and grant notification letters are prepared and sent out.

During the minimum operating period of three years, only the applicant’s own vehicles (purchased or leased) and vehicles belonging to permanent transportation partners, contracted companies, or suppliers may be charged at the subsidized charging points that are not open to the public. It is important to note that the group of users must be clearly defined and verifiable by the applicant. Accordingly, all users of the charging infrastructure must be identifiable by name.

If an innovative additional criterion is implemented, the grant amount may be increased by an additional 10 percent of the eligible expenses or expected eligible costs, up to a maximum of 20,000 euros.

However, the total grant amount per application (or charging location) is capped at 250,000 euros. This upper limit cannot be exceeded, even by implementing an innovative additional criterion.

As part of the implementation of an innovative additional criterion, for example, charging power could be dynamically linked to weather forecasts, grid loads, or expected transport routes using innovative algorithms. Aspects related to battery conservation, delivery time reduction, or vehicle maintenance could also be addressed. The implementation, investigation, and evaluation of such optimizations may be eligible for supplementary funding as an “innovative additional criterion” within the scope of the funding project, provided that a sufficiently innovative approach is demonstrated. In any case, the selected concept must aim to optimize the charging process, increase energy efficiency, or reduce environmental impact in conjunction with cost reduction.

As part of the application, the innovative supplementary criterion and its expected impacts must be clearly outlined; see Section 4.2 of this call for proposals. Based on the submitted outline, the granting authority will evaluate the innovative supplementary criterion at its discretion and may award additional funding. The applicant has no legal entitlement to such funding. The implementation of an innovative additional criterion must be technically monitored and evaluated for at least one year during the minimum three-year operational period specified in Section 7 by an independent and thematically suitable institution or organization (e.g., research institute, engineering firm, university, college). A corresponding, substantive final report must be submitted to the granting authority in the standard format no later than three months after the end of the technical supervision. The granting agency is authorized to request interim results and to publish project results in statistical or anonymized form. Final and interim reports must be prepared in German at a minimum.

It is essential to note that the implementation of an innovative additional criterion must in all cases be supported by a thematically appropriate institution or organization (e.g., research institution, engineering firm, college or university), and a corresponding, informative final report must be prepared. Any (additional) costs that may arise in this regard will not be funded or subsidized separately but are covered by the funding bonus of up to 20,000 €.