Germany, Austria Further EV Charging – Maybe We Should Take Note
Photo: © General Motors
While electric vehicles may have seen something of a setback over here, across the pond in Europe, charging infrastructure is still steaming full on ahead, particularly now in Germany and Austria. Both have existing programs to encourage electric cars and reduce vehicle emissions, but now both are introducing programs to further the current programs.
In Germany, the focus mainly seems to be encouraging new charging stations, building 27% more charging stations in the last year, according to Reuters, bringing it up to over 7,400 stations. This has coincided with a 29% increase of electric cars sold in the country during the same period.
In Austria, though, the strategy seems to be one of combining existing networks now over building new chargers. Some of the country’s major utility companies will be joining together their own networks into a cohesive whole of over 1,300 stations, letting drivers who sign up with any of the 11 companies in the network to use all the available stations.
This solves a problem which is apparently beginning to emerge as US infrastructure expands, where drivers have to hold accounts with a number of networks in order to ensure access to all available stations.
Austria hopes to widen this consolidated network to 2,000 stations by the end of the year, and up to 5,000 by 2020. This will most likely be bolstered by increased EV sales due to purchase initiatives which went into effect starting this month.
Over here, if the disparate charging station networks could be encouraged to consolidate somewhat similar to how cell phone networks allow roaming, that could provide a boost to the electric vehicle market in a time where green vehicles are seeing some dark clouds from the current administration.
News Sources: Green Car Reports, Reuters
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