Public Charging Infrastructure in Germany–A Utilization and Profitability Analysis

The current increase in the number of electric vehicles in Germany requires an adequately developed charging infrastructure. Large numbers of public and semi-public charging stations are necessary to ensure sufficient coverage of charging options. In order to make the installation worthwhile for the mostly private operators as well as public ones, a sufficient utilization is decisive. This paper gives an overview of the differences in the utilization across the public charging infrastructure in Germany. To this end, a dataset on the utilization of 21164 public and semi-public charging stations in Germany is evaluated. The installation and operating costs of various charging stations are modeled and economically evaluated in combination with the utilization data. It is shown that in 2019–2020, the average utilization in Germany was rather low, albeit with striking regional differences. We consider future scenarios allowing the regional development forecasting of economic viability. It is demonstrated that a growth in electric mobility of 20%-30% per year leads to a large number of economically feasible charging parks in urban agglomeration areas.