How can electric mobility become more appealing and practical for even more people and businesses? Around 500 participants on-site and several hundred more online are discussing this today at the fifth Charging Infrastructure Conference hosted by the Federal Ministry of Transportation.

With 3.5 million electric passenger cars and more than 200,000 publicly accessible charging points, Germany has a strong foundation for further market growth. At the Charging Infrastructure Conference, representatives from politics, the automotive industry, the energy sector, the housing industry, logistics, and academia will discuss what is needed now to further expand the reach of electric mobility. The focus will be on the continued expansion of the charging infrastructure, user-friendly and smart charging, and the electrification of heavy-duty road freight transport.

Steffen Bilger, Federal Minister of Transportation: „Electric mobility has become part of everyday life, as one in four new cars is electric. And our charging infrastructure continues to grow every day: About 60 new public charging stations are now being added daily. The focus now is on further developing this expansion in a targeted manner. We will ensure greater pricing transparency and simplify payment, advance the charging infrastructure for heavy-duty commercial vehicles with a Germany-wide fast-charging network, and allocate 500 million euros to expand charging capabilities in apartment buildings. At the same time, we’re creating better conditions for grid connections and simplifying the planning of charging infrastructure. Our goal is clear: charging must be simple, reliable, and suitable for everyone’s daily life.“

The conference will explore how to successfully scale up this transition through three major thematic blocks. The first session will address the question of how to achieve widespread adoption of electric mobility and what infrastructure and user-friendliness requirements are necessary to make this happen. Participants in this discussion include Dr. Claudia Elif Stutz, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport; Diana Stöcker, Mayor of Weil am Rhein; Alexander Junge, Member of the Board of Aral AG; and Alexander Bloch, chief tester and host at VOX auto mobil.

The focus will then shift to how charging infrastructure can be even better integrated into everyday life and the energy system in the future. Representatives from the political, housing, and energy sectors will discuss how smart charging can reduce costs, ease the strain on the power grid, and unlock new opportunities for users. Various technology pitches will also showcase innovative approaches to charging infrastructure, including solutions for locations with grid bottlenecks, the use of artificial intelligence, and automated megawatt charging.

The third and final focus area examines the rise of battery-electric trucks and the challenges they pose in day-to-day logistics operations. Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of MAN Truck & Bus SE, will open the session with a keynote address. Representatives from the fields of politics, logistics, and the energy sector will then discuss how to further advance charging infrastructure in depots, logistics centers, and public spaces.

Dagmar Fehler, CEO and spokesperson for NOW GmbH: „The Charging Infrastructure Conference provides a forum for sharing experiences, discussing new approaches, and jointly shaping the next steps. With the successful expansion of the charging infrastructure, the focus is now shifting more toward quality-related issues. Users expect a charging experience that is simple, reliable, and convenient.“

The hybrid event is being organized jointly by the Federal Ministry of Transport, NOW GmbH, and the National Charging Infrastructure Coordination Center. Federal Minister of Transport Steffen Bilger will deliver the opening remarks.

To coincide with the conference, the National Charging Infrastructure Coordination Center is releasing a new dashboard: the AFIR Target MONITORING uses current maps and data to visualize the status of implementation of the European AFIR requirements in Germany. It shows the extent to which the expansion targets along the individual route segments of the Trans-European Transport Network for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles have already been achieved.

A recording of the conference will be posted on NOW GmbH's YouTube channel after the event.