Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is making a total of €500 million available by the end of 2025 for the further development of the public charging infrastructure in Germany. The aim is to set up a total of at least 50,000 charging points (of which at least 20,000 are fast charging points).

The first call for the newly issued funding was published yesterday; from 31 August, companies, cities and municipalities, public institutions and private individuals can submit funding applications.

Charging has to be the new refueling: Citizens should be able to charge their electric car anytime and anywhere—at the supermarket, on the roadside, at the restaurant or sports field. This is the only way we can achieve a breakthrough in electromobility in Germany. Currently, more than every fourth public charging point can be traced back to our funding. With 500 million euros and our new funding program, we are now going one step further. We are initially supporting the construction of around 18,000 additional public charging points with an initial amount of 190 million euros. Here we are building on our successful forerunner program, with which almost 30,000 new charging points have already been set up. Further calls for funding will follow this year.

—Federal Minister Andreas Scheuer

This funding program addresses all relevant scenarios with regard to publicly accessible charging infrastructure: intermediate charging, for example in customer parking lots or on the roadside, as well as fast charging on axles or fast charging parks in urban areas. A special focus is therefore on the promotion of fast charging points. In this way, we will meet the continued high number of electric vehicle registrations now and in the future.

—Johannes Pallasch, spokesman for the management team of the National Charging Infrastructure Control Center (NOW GmbH )

In the first call, the following are to be funded:

• Around 9,000 publicly accessible charging points with a maximum charging capacity of up to 22 kilowatts (normal charging points);

• Around 9,000 publicly accessible charging points with a maximum charging capacity of more than 22 kilowatts, at which charging with direct current (DC) is only possible (DC fast charging points); and

• The grid connection belonging to a subsidized charging point or the combination of grid connection and buffer storage.

Up to 60% of the eligible costs are funded. All funded charging stations must be publicly accessible and run on electricity from renewable energies.

In the first edition of the federal funding guidelines for charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, €300 million euros were available from 2017 to 2020. Around 30,000 public charging points were approved. Almost 13,000 of these have already been set up, including around 2,000 fast charging points.

BMVI is also putting out tenders for the construction and operation of 1,000 fast charging locations, each with several charging points. (Earlier post.)