|
Germany now has 7,407 charging points, electricity industry
group BDEW said on Friday. Of those added last year, 292 units
were fast charging (direct current) points that can reload an
electric car in minutes instead of hours.
With public and government support growing for electric car
technologies, utilities such as Innogy and E.ON are building up
charging networks to tap into the market.
BDEW's managing director Stefan Kapferer said government funding
was still important to make it viable to operate charging
points, given the low numbers of electric cars.
The number of electric cars in Germany rose 29 percent to 77,153
in 2016, up from just 4,000 in 2011, BDEW said.
Kapferer also said the technology needed to be developed
further, citing inductive charging as one way that could help to
gain new customers.
The long time it takes to charge batteries is one of the main
disadvantages of electric cars compared to conventional cars
with gasoline tanks that can be filled up in seconds.
BMW, Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE>, Ford and Daimler plan to build
about 400 next-generation charging stations in Europe that can
reload an electric car in minutes instead of hours as they look
to stoke demand and gain market share from Tesla.
The BDEW statistics showed that North Rhine-Westphalia leads in
the number of charging points, followed by Baden-Wuerttemberg
and Bavaria.
Austria this week also said suppliers would join up their
charging stations across the country, making it easier for
drivers to charge up as part of the country's efforts to promote
the vehicles to reduce CO2 emissions.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Victoria Bryan)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
