E-mobility: German draft law facilitates tenders for superchargers

Titled in short Schnellladegesetz, roughly translating to Supercharger Act, this draft law will now be introduced to the Bundestag for further discussion.

The law aims at creating and enhancing the German supercharger infrastructure with a focus on mobility hubs to allow for the use of EVs on medium and long range travel.

The goal of this new legislation is to ensure that the infrastructure for a broad use of EVs is build even before there is significant demand, to allow for a smooth transition of the German public from the use of carbon emitting vehicles to EVs.

To achieve this goal the German government wants to initiate several European calls for tenders to allocate different regions in Germany to the respective winners of such a tender, where they will be responsible to construct the supercharger infrastructure as defined in the respective call for tenders' documentation. The draft law shall be the basis for these calls for tenders and give a first indication on how these tenders are to be drafted and which requirements will need to be met by interested parties. Generally it is envisioned to have at least 10 to 15 calls for tenders for different regions in Germany, which will need to be further specified. In total the goal is to have around 1000 new supercharger hubs built in Germany by 2023.

With respect to the requirements and framework of such calls for tender, the draft law only contains some rough guidelines which will be described below.

• The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (Ministry) will be tasked with both specifying the requirement for the calls for tenders and then issue the calls for tenders.

• Generally the different regions for the calls for tenders will be determined in such a way as to include both lucrative and less lucrative supercharger locations.

• A supercharger as defined in the draft law will be capable of charging with a charging power of at least 150 kilowatt. This could potentially be increased with the specific calls for tenders if the Ministry should deem necessary. A supercharger station will be constituted of several superchargers as well as ancillary buildings such as restrooms or refreshments.

• Anyone who wins a call for tenders will be obliged to construct the supercharger infrastructure as described in the respective call for tenders. Such a call for tenders can potentially already include specific supercharger locations and the respective capacity.

• The new superchargers will need to be accessible on an indiscriminate basis for any EV, i.e. irrespective of the make or any other differences. However, if justifiable reasons exist, there can be different pricing.

The next steps will be the discussion of the draft law in both chambers of the German parliament, the Bundestag and Bundesrat, with the aim of passing the law this spring and then concurringly the first calls for tenders starting in summer of this year.