Public Charging

In germany, a total of 35,076 public normal charging points and 5,730 fast charging stations were registered in march 2021 - and the trend is rising. So, with a little planning, covering longer distances with your electric car is really no problem.

When you're on the road with your electric car, you can charge the battery at more than 22,000 publicly accessible charging points. Simply activate the charging point via an app, an RFID card or a QR code. A cable with the appropriate adapter is required. Note whether the socket has 16 amps or 32 amps. Depending on the amperage and how many phases the mobile charging station has, your electric car can then be charged at up to 22 kilowatts.

Find a charging station

To make it easy for you to charge your electric car when you're away from home - or if you can't install your own wallbox - here's a useful map with all charging stations in Germany so you can find one on your route or nearby.

Ease and freedom of charging, also on the go

Charge your electric or plug-in-hybrid car on the road: thanks to the eSolutions Charging app you enjoy access to more than 300.000 charging points across Europe and can easily and quickly manage the charging of your Opel during all your trips and travels.

Discover Free2move eSolutions charging services.

Free2move eSolutions services

Free charging stations

There may be more free charging stations than you think: many utilities, city halls, municipalities, restaurants, hotels and retailers offer free charging stations for the duration of your stay or shopping. Maybe even your employer provides free charging stations or mobile wallboxes for electric cars? In any case, it might be worth asking.

Check charging stations

How does charging at public charging stations actually work? What do I have to bear in mind and how do I get charged? Or is it ultimately better to have a mobile charging station with you? You can find all the important information here.

Charging cards

If you want to charge your electric car at a public charging station, you will often need a charging card. You can order one quickly and easily on the website of your preferred provider. However, you should think carefully about which provider you buy your charging card from. There are currently over 200 providers on the market, so there are sometimes big differences in charging costs - and not every card works at every charging point.

By the way, your personal driving habits also play a role in the choice of your charging card: For frequent drivers, for example, a charging card with a monthly basic fee is more advisable, as it incurs lower or no costs for the individual charging process. If you are an occasional driver, on the other hand, a prepaid charging card probably makes more sense for you.

Billing systems

The large number of different providers of public charging stations unfortunately also means that there are a large number of different billing systems. Either a charging card - of which there are over 300 in Germany alone - or a charging app is used as the basis for billing. As a rule, billing is based on either a basic monthly fee or a prepaid tariff, but billing can also be based on other price components.

These include, for example:

Charging time: You are charged for the entire time your electric car is connected to the charging station.
Charging quantity: You pay for the charging quantity - i.e. the kWh - that your electric car has charged.
Start charge: A one-off charge that is incurred when starting each charging process.

Some providers also combine these billing types with each other or in addition to the basic charge, e.g. basic charge plus charging amount or start charge plus charging time.

Mobile charging station

With a mobile charging station on board, you can always be completely relaxed on the road. You simply take the charger with you in the boot and charge flexibly and safely wherever you need to: at your friends' house in the driveway, at work in the underground car park and even at your home - with optimised performance of up to 22 kW at industrial sockets, as well as at all conventional household sockets.

Our tip: A mobile charging station is not only practical on the road, but also a good and safe alternative to installing a wallbox in your garage or at your house. However, you have to weigh up which model is the most cost-effective: the one-off purchase price for the mobile charging station, but higher electricity costs and longer charging time, or the comparatively higher costs for the purchase and installation of a wallbox, but where charging is cheaper.

Whether you charge your electric car at a charging station in the underground car park, your employer provides a wallbox for charging or you simply want to buy a wallbox for your home yourself. Find out everything you need to know.

Charging stations in underground garages

Installing charging stations for electric cars in underground car parks - this is a state-of-the-art service offered by underground car park operators. Whereas in past years there were still concerns about fire protection, permits and special fire protection measures are often no longer necessary. Nevertheless, there are a few things to consider.

As a building owner, you should familiarise yourself with local laws and regulations on garages. In addition to the fire protection scheme, a risk assessment should also be carried out. An electrical planner will check the site-specific requirements in each individual case and can correctly estimate the minimum requirements. In addition to an electrical planner, it is generally advisable to involve the respective grid operator before installing a charging station. Especially when assessing the simultaneity factor, which takes into account how many electric cars are charging in parallel.

Even if there is no general obligation to do so, it always makes sense to notify even the connection of a smaller wallbox with 3.7 kW. This ensures the registration of the system to the grid connection and future grid loads can be detected in advance.

Commercial charging station usage

A great way of attracting highly skilled employees is when companies install a charging station or wallbox for staff to charge their electric cars free of charge. For businesses, this can even have tax advantages: because unlike petrol or diesel vouchers for employees (which are considered a non-cash benefit), no taxes are incurred when employees charge their electric cars.

A few more tips for entrepreneurs who use an electric vehicle (or a plug-in hybrid) as a company car: car costs are determined in the same way as for a car with an internal combustion engine. However, determining the electricity costs for charging an electric car can be more difficult. Our tip: a cost of installing a charging station that is used solely for charging the vehicle together with the installation of an electricity meter are tax deductible business expenses.

Comparing home charging stations

There are a few things to consider when buying a wallbox: The basic models differ in the power they provide: 11 kW or 22 kW. The 22 kW wallbox charges your electric car twice as fast - but if you can always charge your electric car overnight, for example, the 11 kW solution is perfectly adequate. The more time-intensive charging with an 11 kW wallbox also protects the battery considerably - and thus increases its service life.

There is another difference between 11 kW and 22 kW wallboxes - the former only needs to be reported to the grid operator, the latter also needs to be approved. If you drive an electric van or an e-service vehicle - which need to be ready for use again quickly - the 22 kW wallbox may be advantageous. Wallboxes used for commercial purposes, however, are not eligible for KfW funding. You only receive the 900 euro subsidy if you buy a Smart Wallbox at a privately used parking space. If it has several charging points, you will even receive 900 euros per charging point.

How many charging stations are there in Germany?

A total of 35,076 normal charging points and 5,730 fast charging points have been reported to the Federal Network Agency as of 1 March 2021. And the number is constantly growing! So nothing stands in the way of a relaxed drive, even over longer distances.

How do I find charging stations for electric cars?

Before you travel a long distance, we recommend that you take a look at our map or a charging station overview. You're sure to find enough charging stations there to get your electric car to your destination in comfort.

How much does an electric car cost per month?

The consumption of the Opel Mokka-e is around 18 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometres. At the current (2021) electricity price of 31.89 cents/kWh, 18 kilowatt hours cost a total of 5.74 euros. Refuelling is therefore cheaper than with a petrol engine. If you compare other costs such as maintenance and service, taxes and insurance, the electric car also comes out better here.

How high is the charging current for electric cars?

It depends on which charging options and where you're charging. AC charging stations generally offer charging capacities of 11-22kW. Combined charging stations currently offer up to 43kW AC at Type 2 and up to 150kW DC at CSS and/or CHAdeMO.