MUNICH, Germany, Sept 5 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised the German automotive sector’s electrification efforts at the Munich IAA car exhibition. He criticized protests as “disruptive” and revealed a new legislation aimed at increasing the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations.
Scholz announced that in the coming weeks, Germany would become “the first European country to implement a law mandating that 80% of all service stations offer fast-charging options with a minimum capacity of 150 kilowatts for electric cars.”
This expansion is expected to alleviate range anxiety for EV drivers. However, Scholz did not specify a timeline for this initiative.
While Germany currently has only 90,000 public charging points, it aims to reach 1 million by 2030 to promote EV adoption. By April’s end, Germany had approximately 1.2 million fully electric vehicles on its roads, a far cry from the 15 million target for 2030, according to data from the KBA federal motor authority. Limited charging infrastructure, high prices, and limited range have been identified as the primary factors hindering EV sales.
During Scholz’s visit to the IAA car show in Munich, protests occurred twice, with demonstrators climbing on top of cars at the BMW (BMWG.DE) and Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) displays, carrying signs that read “The party is over” in German and chanting, “The future is being destroyed.”
Addressing the protests, Scholz remarked at the end of his tour that “Protests are part of public and democratic debate… but it is a little anachronistic. If you walk through these stands and see the new technologies… to make mobility have less or no emissions in the future, it is a bit irritating.”
Scholz also commented on competition from China in the EV sector, emphasizing that competition should motivate, not intimidate. He pointed out that in the past, similar concerns were raised about Japanese and Korean cars dominating the market, but German automakers’ competitiveness remains strong.
Chinese EV manufacturers like BYD, Nio, Xpeng (9868.HK), and Leapmotor (9863.HK) are all targeting the European market, where EV sales have surged by nearly 55%, reaching around 820,000 vehicles in the first seven months of 2023, accounting for approximately 13% of all car sales.
Despite Western automakers’ concerns about fierce competition from Chinese rivals, major German auto suppliers expressed their eagerness to expand existing partnerships in China and supply European-made components to these emerging manufacturers at the mobility show, according to Reuters sources.