Merkel wants Germany to have 1 mln electric car charging points by 2030

(Reuters News, 3 Nov 2019) The chancellor called for the step-up ahead of a meeting with the car industry on how to speed the move to low-emission battery-driven vehicles.

Germany should have one million charging stations for electric cars by 2030, Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a video message on Sunday, ahead of meetings on Monday with the car industry on how to speed the move to low-emission battery-powered vehicles.

"For this purpose, we want to create a million charging points by the year 2030 and the industry will have to participate in this effort, that is what we will be talking about," Merkel said. Germany now has just 20,000 public charging points.

Stephan Weil, the prime minister in Lower Saxony, where Volkswagen is based, said he wanted to see commitments for 100,000 public charging points in place by 2021.

Weil is a supervisory board member at Volkswagen which is committed to transitioning to battery-powered cars but needs to see more charging infrastructure in order to market them successfully.

The meeting in the Chancellery is the second on the issue that entails speedy action so that Germany's transport sector can help meet national emissions targets.

Would-be buyers have cited a lack of fuel infrastructure as a reason to shun electric cars.

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Reuters News, 3 Nov 2019: Merkel wants Germany to have 1 mln electric car charging points by 2030